Life In Moments
by mai-sama
Summary: Some moments are profound, some are profane and all moments are purely defined as Elric ::A series of short stories, post-manga.::
1. 1 Anniversary

Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!

Chapter One: Family

OoOoOo

"Rah!"

Winry smiled, hearing the cry from her children as they played in the yard, jumping around while clapping their hands and chasing each other.

"That's not fair!" A voice yelled her small hands balled angrily at her sides. "Yes it is! I'm Daddy, and Daddy used to be able to do alchemy without circles so I can too!" The angry rebuttal from her son called back.

Winry rolled her eyes dramatically. Every time they played homunculus and alchemist a fight between the two broke out.

"I don't want to be a homunculus anymore! I wanna be Daddy!" Her daughter argued back. "You can't be Daddy stupid, you're a girl!" Came her sons angry bark.

Strong arms wrapped around Winry's waist, causing her to jump as she quickly stabbed the paring knife she was using into the wooden cutting board. Preventing herself from slashing at the perpetrator.

"Really Winry, that's a bit of an intense reflex you have there." A husky voice murmured against her ear, causing goose bumps to run along her flesh. "I think we should make their game into a common house hold name. Think of it, alchemist and homunculus! A game to entertain your children with for hours!" Winry smirked, relaxing her body into the warm one behind her and resting her head on Ed's (now broad) shoulder, watching her children run around, their previous argument forgotten.

"That's exactly what we need to do. But afterwards we might need to buy a new house for the amount of space your head will take up." Winry felt Ed huff from behind her, tightening his arms around her waist he brought his head into the crease of her neck, placing a kiss just along the curve. He smirked before nipping the skin, feeling his wife tense under him. "Trust me; I only need one person to make my head swell." Edward laughed as Winry jerked violently from him, her hair slapping at him as she twisted her body towards him, her face a beat red.

"Edward Elric! I cannot believe you just said that!" She yelled loudly, jabbing an accusing finger into his chest. "That, is by far, one of the crassest things I've ever even heard come from your mouth!" She ranted on, the temperature in her face hot enough to put the flame alchemist to shame.

Grabbing the finger in his chest Edward yanked it behind him, making Winry unbalanced and sending her forward and into his chest. Wrapping his other hand into her hair he held her face against his chest.

"I'm sorry," He said, chuckling lightly, "I just love seeing that blush and I have to constantly think of new things to see it." Releasing her hand he wrapped his free arm around her back, running his fingers along her spine. "I remember when just doing that would send you into an embarrassed fit."

Rolling her eyes Winry wrapped both her hands around Ed's back, feeling the many layers of muscles that hugged his frame. "Well I remember when I use to tell you I love you and it would send you into a fit." Winry murmured, feeling the heat lessen in her cheeks, a content smile lighting her face.

"Ah, yes, I do remember that as well." Ed begrudgingly admitted, sliding his hand to the base of her spine. Smiling Ed cupped his wife in both his hands, quickly maneuvering her to the counter top and spreading her legs, nestling into the opening only for him.

"Ed!" Winry attempted to protest, her eyes widening as a blush again bloomed onto her face. He deviously slid his fingers along the cloth covering her thighs, loving the new position he'd put himself in. Nose to nose now Edward stared at his wife with a content smile, loving the way her eyes sparkled the deep blue from embarrassment.

"I'll never get over it." He murmured, kissing her cheek delicately, feeling the heat on her skin. "You've blessed me with two beautiful children, a home, a bed, and you're love. Now all I'm waiting for is the equivalent exchange. There's no way that I can have all this and not give anything up." He said, running a finger along her jaw, watching as her eyes brimmed in tears.

"You're not supposed to cry dummy." He gently admonished. "I can't help it." Winry sniffed back, her heart swelling in ways she never thought it could. "You make me too happy, stop it!" She said, turning her face away from his and throwing her hands into the space between them.

Chuckling Edward pushed himself further forward, forcing Winry's hands away. He leaned in closer as he heard a quiet murmur. "I can't hear you Winry." He said with a smile, nosing her ear as the blush continued to spread across her face and creep onto her neck. Lowering her face she shifted her eyes up to meet her husband's glimmering gold orbs. "I said then I guess it's a good thing that I don't believe in equivalent exchange." She said quietly, her eyes shining in suppressed embarrassment as Edwards's softened.

"I guess it's a good thing that one of us doesn't" He said happily, cupping her face in his large hands, bringing her up and forward towards his own. "Winry Elric, I love you and your law defying equivalent exchange." Smiling happily Winry wrapped her arms around Edwards's neck, "And I, Edward Elric, love you and your paranoid equivalent exchange quack."

"Stupid girl, it's not a quack." Edward said before he fully pulled her forward, meeting her half way in a kiss that sent Winry's toes curling. Pulling away Edward looked at his wife, "Happy anniversary." He said sweetly.

Ed watched as Winry quickly snapped away from him. "Oh my gosh! I almost forgot to give you your anniversary present!" She said as she pushed past him, running through their house quicker than Edward knew she was gone. He looked down at the spot his wife _was_ at, seeing an imprint on the counter she was sitting on.

'_Whoops' _he thought to himself, noticing for the first time that she was in the process of baking a pie and he had just conveniently placed her in the spot of flour she was using to make her dough with. Diced apples lay on the cutting board beside him, shrugging he reached over, taking one and popping it into his mouth.

"Happy anniversary!" Winry said from behind him.

Turning Edward smiled at him wife around a mouthful of apples. "Edward! That's for my pie! God, you are such an endless pit!" She said angrily, thrusting a rectangular box at his chest.

"What's this?" He asked curiously, swallowing the fruit and inspecting the plain brown wrapping of his gift.

"Well, I know that we don't usually exchange gifts for our anniversary, but this just sort of...caught my attention a couple of days ago." Winry said in embarrassment, her eyes traveling to the window to avoid looking at Edward.

Chuckling, Edward shook his head, "Now you're making me feel bad about not buying me anything for our anniversary."

Winry laughed nervously, "Oh, you'll be buying me something." She said, watching as he pulled the brow paper away from the rectangular box.

"A bracelet?" He asked in confusion, he'd never really been one for wearing any type of jewelry. "Winry why did you..."

His words trailed off as he opened the lid of the box, his mouth falling open in shock.

"I need you to call Al..." Winry said, watching as her husband continued to stare at the box in amazement. "This house isn't big enough anymore for five people."

Edward looked up at his wife, beaming happily at her as he placed the jewelry box on the counter behind him. He suddenly threw his head back and laughed, bringing his wife into a warm embrace. "I'm glad I still have it in me." He said cockily as he planted a kiss on her lips. Winry smiled against his lips, placing her arms around Edwards's neck as they forgot the world around them.

On the counter the box sat forgotten. Inside, a little parcel of paper sat, screaming in bold lettering a message that always changed a family.

'Congratulations On Your New Addition!'


	2. 2 Flowers

Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!

Chapter Two: Flowers

OoOoOo

Edward smiled grimly, gazing at the bouquet of flowers in a lost stare. He really only bought flowers on certain occasions, and these occasions he did not particularly enjoy.

Not at all.

"What about these flowers Daddy?" Blinking Edward looked down at his daughter. She stood feet shorter than him, grasping a bouquet close to her small body. The flowers spilled out of the plastic, the force her daughter was squeezing them with proving to be too much for the delicate buds. A set of blue eyes stared innocently at him, blinking in question when he continued to just stare at the colorful plants.

"You don't like them Daddy?" She asked, her shoulders sagging in defeat and eyes falling to the ground. It was proving difficult to find the perfect flowers for her Daddy, which in turn was disappointing her. All she wanted was for Daddy to smile again.

Crouching down onto his only automail limb Edward reached his hand out, placing it on her head and ruffling her hair. "They're beautiful sweetheart." He told her honestly. Edward watched as his youngest spirits were rekindled. She perked up, smiling happily at him before suddenly frowning again and looking away.

"Do you think Mommy will like them?" She asked quietly, her voice loosing the cheerful innocents it normally had.

Edward reached out, pulling his baby girl into a tight embrace, caring very little-if at all-of the bouquet of flowers that crushed between them. "I think Mommy will love them Sara." He told her honestly, wishing that he could make her smile again. That he could take her pain away.

Standing up Edward reach over Sara, handing the owner the cash needed for the bouquet.

"Alright Sara," Edward said, reaching down and bringing her into his arms, "Let's go give Mommy her flowers." Sara smiled happily, one arm wrapped around the stems of her flowers while the other wrapped around her Daddy's neck.

"Daddy?" Sara asked as they started their foot journey. "Yes?" he asked, looking over at his daughter as she stared at the flowers in contemplation.

"Why did God make flowers?"

Edward paused in his tracks, looking at his daughter oddly. He, himself, was never a religious man. When the worship of a higher being came into play he could only ever think of his past and in turn never fully accept the faith like so many could. That didn't mean, however, that he would deprive his child the opportunity to find faith where he couldn't.

"He made them so people would get better." He answered to the best of his ability, hoping that she would take it for what it was.

She was an Elic though, and smarter than what he gave her credit for.

"But then that means that God knows people will get sick and die. Why would he want something bad like that to happen to people?" She asked, her voice taking on a sad note.

"Sara, you don't always only buy flowers when something bad happens." Edward tried to explain, wondering where this sudden bout of inquisition had come from.

"But you only buy flowers for Mommy when she's sick. And recently you've been buying Mommy more flowers." Fat tears suddenly welled in her eyes as she stared at her Daddy, a waver cracking in her voice as she asked her next question. "Mommy's not going to die is she?"

Quickly Edward again brought his daughter into a hug, seeing finally what it was that was bothering her from the beginning.

"Oh, sweetheart, no, Mommy's not going to die. _Especially _since we've been bringing her so many flowers lately." He said soothingly, trying to stop the flow of tears he could feel soaking into his shirt. "Daddy just gets scared sometimes and flowers make Daddy feel better." He continued, hearing her sniff as she tried to stop crying.

"Why would God make us give flowers to Mommy? Flowers are pretty but I don't like them anymore! I don't want to give flowers to Mommy anymore!" Sara continued, bursting into another set of tears.

Try as he might Edward could not stop his daughter from crying.

Sighing he realized the only remedy to his new problem. Mommy. She was the only one now who could stop his daughters sad weeping.

Looking up Edward realized that he only had a little further to go till they reached the hospital. Just looking at the tall, white, ominous building sent a shiver of terror down his spine. He hated hospitals with a passion. With a fiery burning passion. While he and Winry were at their house in Central, however, there wasn't a home doctor, so he had been forced to take her to the hospital.

Edward looked to the ground as he followed the steps leading to the large doors.

To say he was forced would be a lie...almost. It was best to say that his fear had forced him. When he had walked in his house to see Winry sprawled on the floor and Eddie screaming his head off he thought of nothing other than taking her to a hospital. It had been one of the scariest moments in his life, and judging by the way his recently solemn son had been acting he could tell that it had also been one of his.

Eddie had been virtually inconsolable by the time he had finally taken Winry to the hospital. For hours he cried in his father's arms until finally exhaustion took him in its sweet embrace.

When the doctors had finally allowed Edward to see his wife he was brought to his knees by how sick she was.

Fury, even now, ate at the pit of his gut.

It had been that damn metal. Some new metal she was just dyeing to try out-a fresh off the market _seldom _used precious metal that she couldn't wait to get her hands on. If she had waited to get her hands on it then maybe he could have prevented this all. A half assed recall was released and his wife begrudgingly gave the precious metal up. Weeks had gone by and they had believed she was in the clear, she was showing no sign of becoming sick like many of the others who had been in close contact with it had, and she was still actively working on new automail.

Edward could only thank his lucky stars that she prohibited their children from going into her work room, in this unfortunate even it could have been even worse, but being the ever cautious mother she had easily kept her babies away from anything that could poke, prod, or pinch them.

Now if only he could get her to be more cautious of her own health.

When she recovered from this he was going to be putting his foot down on a thing or two dammit.

A breeze of cool air hit Edward in the face as he pushed through the hospital doors, making his way down a hallway he had personally been down one too many times. The numbers 27B etched in a white plaque stared back at him. He knocked quietly then entered, not waiting for a response.

What he saw tore his heart. Eddie clung to his mother, his small hands wrapped protectively around the arm of hers that didn't have multiple needles and tubes connected to it. The hand that was covered in tubes though was awake, and gently stroking her sons head.

"You better be careful, if you pull another tube out I am seriously going to beat you." Edward gently admonished, watching as his wife's hazy eyes rolled over to him. She smiled softly, seeing bright blue eyes watered in tears staring back at her.

"What's wrong honey?" She asked gently, nodding for Edward to bring her little girl over to her.

"You're not going to die, are you Mommy?" Sara asked tearfully, clutching the fresh bouquet of flowers to her chest. Smiling Winry shook her head, watching as Edward took the flowers-or rather what was left on their stems-and exchanged them from the ones he had bought the day before.

"Mommy's going to be all better and out of this place soon." Winry told Sara gently, reaching out with her wired hand and running a finger along her tear stained cheek. "No more tears love, Mommy will be ok." She said.

"But Daddy keeps bringing flowers and God made flowers for people who get sick and die." Sara again elaborated, clutching at her mother's normally strong hand.

"No, God didn't make flowers for that." She told her. "Then what did he make them for?" Her little girl asked. "He made them so you could tell your loved ones what you wanted to say without words. So you could show your emotions in bright and passionate colors. All sorts of flowers mean all sorts of things and sometimes flowers just speak them so much louder than words can." Winry said, rubbing the tears that were slowly stopping from her daughters face.

"So you're not going to die?" Sara asked happily.

Laughing softly Winry motioned for Edward to deposit Sara in her bed with her. Edward did as she motioned, laying the little girl carefully in the arm riddled with tubes. He watched as daughter curled next to mother, listening to her steady heart beat.

"It's going to take more than that to kill off Mommy."

Smiling at the trio Edward leaned over the bed, placing a sweet kiss on his wife's forehead.

At the base of her bed a bouquet of Juniper watched over the family.

OoOoOo

3 Months Later

Edward walked along the winding streets of Resembol. After the incident in Central he was eager to place his family back in the home and town he was most comfortable in.

Finally after three weeks of being in the hospital Winry was taken out of the hospital. And the first thing Edward did was pack their bags and go back to their yellow house on the peaceful, devil-free-of-new-untested-metal hill in Resembol.

Eddie had taken up a new habit of watching his mothers ever move, and Edward suspected that the only reason he had recently taken up a passion for automail was so he could work in the workshop with her-keeping an ever watchful eye on her every move.

Edward smirked to himself. '_That's my boy_.' He thought happily to himself.

With a new perk in his step he trotted the rest of the way to his house, eager to get back to the adventures that the Elric family could possibly come up with.

As he made his way to the front door he paused, looking back at the thousands of daisies that had taken home on his lawn.

It seems as if Sara had gone a bit crazy with her new passion for flowers.

Smiling he walked into the house, depositing a bouquet of flowers into the vase Sara insisted stayed at the front door. Looked up he saw Winry in the kitchen while Eddie sat at the table, watching her out of the corner of his eye as he read an automail book, and Sara sitting on the floor, pulling apart a daisy she had swiped from the lawn.

Coming up behind his wife he placed a kiss on her cheek.

She laughed joyfully, turning around and snaking her hands around his waist.

"Why there you are." She said playfully, smiling as he tucked her bangs behind her ear.

"Sorry it took so long, the neighbors fence broke and you're truly had to help." Edward said exasperatedly; glad to finally be back at his home. Winry laughed before again turning around.

"Well you're home just in time for lunch. Eddie, put the book away and help Daddy set the table." Winry said happily, not waiting for a response as she continued her final preparations for the meal.

Edward smiled and watched his wife before his gaze slipped to the bouquet of flowers he had placed in the vase. A family of dandelions smiled back at him.

It seems that flowers really could say things that words cant.

OoOoOo

a.n. awwwww, yep, this will rot your teeth out, but come on! In my defense-they've been through a lot already! I'm just giving them their happy endings! Leave me some feedback my lovelies! :)

Dandelions: Wishes come true

Juniper: Protection


	3. 3 Height

Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!

Chapter Three: Height

OoOoOoO

Edward stood, glaring at the back of the blonde standing but a few feet from him.

The wind blew, ruffling his hair which he kept tied back in a now long pony tail.

"I know what you are."

A tick began in Edwards's eye, the blood quickly rushing to his head. He balled his hands into tight fists, the automail limb straining against the soft cotton of his white glove.

"Say it." He bit out harshly. "Out loud."

Winry's shoulders shook, her emotions getting the better of her. Edward watched as she suddenly bent over, placing her hands on her knees as she gasped for breath.

Really, sometimes he was too predictable. It was too easy.

"You're short."

That was it.

Edward exploded, feeling the fire of hatred sent strait from Dante's inferno ignite in his veins.

The small blondes laughing hysterically but a few feet from him did nothing to quell his anger.

"Who are you calling short you Mechanical freak? I'm taller than you are!" He screamed at her at her, watching as his girlfriend of four months laughed at his misfortune.

As he continued to scream his indignation at her one thought kept coursing through his head:

'_That's the LAST time I ever take that woman to a movie!_'

OoOoOoOo

a.n. yeah i know this one is rediculious in shortness, but I was just talking to someone about horrible lines in movies and I couldn't get this out of my head! hahaha, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!


	4. 4 Christmas

**Disclaimer: **Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

_A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

**Chapter Four: Christmas**

**OoOoOo**

"What do you mean you can't get it off?" Winry yelled angrily, her grip on the phone she was holding next to her ear tightening till the tendons in her hand ached for her to relax.

She didn't though.

"Winry, I'm really sorry, but I can't help it." Her equally irritated husband soothed, his voice though sounding strained as he also tried to cool his own simmering temper.

"Why did they deny it?" Winry demanded between her teeth, feeling that familiar anger bubble in her chest. If he were here right now she'd beat the crap out of him with her wrench. She heard an angry huff over the phone.

"It's not like I have any control over what they do and don't let me do Winry, it's the military." He retorted in exasperation. "You could at least ask why it was denied!" She yelled back, a new kind of pain building in her chest.

Hurt.

She growled to herself as tears filled her eyes. Yep, she was going to have to break something after this conversation. She could see it now.

"It doesn't work that way!" Edward yelled at her, finally losing his temper.

He knew he'd feel bad about it later. It wasn't that he was mad at her per say, but rather the situation and her naivety of all the technicalities truly involved. That, and after being with each other since they were children it was insanely easy to take his anger out on her.

"Well don't sound too broken up about it you alchemist freak!"

And her on him as well.

"Winry! This isn't my fault and not what I even wanted, but I have _no _control over it! I'm in the military you mechanical junkie! Sometimes our leave chits _don't _get approved!" He hollered into the phone. Unconsciously he balled the piece of paper under his hand up to a mere disfigured, and unrecognizable, lump.

Well that's more paper work he would now have to re-do.

"Edward! It's Christmas! How do you not get Christmas off?" Winry was practically breathing fire. An angry-and damn the traitorous bastard-tear leaked from her eyes. She quickly reached up, almost slapping herself as she wrenched the offensive liquid off her cheek. Its brother fell shortly after. "Dammit!"

"Calm down woman!" Came Edwards scathing voice, "It's not like I won't be home next Christmas—shit I'll even be home the week after. It's not that big of a deal! It's just a day!"

Really he didn't see why she was making such a big deal out of this. Sure, okay, his leave was denied for Christmas, but they told him he could take a month of leave in January—a month! '_So why in the hell is she getting so bent out of shape about this?_'

"Edward, its not just a day, its Christmas. Your brother is even coming from Xing to see us! To see Eddie! And you're not even going to be here." Winry breathed in deeply.

Okay, she really had to calm down before she said something that she knew she would regret much later.

"Winry, Alphonse can stick around for a little longer to see me. He understands what it's like in this kind of situation." He told her in a calm tone, wishing that by some miracle-or grace of God-that she would just it and understand. It was hard for him to know he wouldn't be seeing his wife and child on Christmas like the rest of the world could, and his hurt was always easily expressed through his anger.

He really didn't want to be a steaming pile of fumes for the rest of the week.

"Oh, so now you're saying that because I'm not in your precious military that I don't understand? Is that it?" Winry demanded, her tone finally reaching levels loud enough to upset her son who immediately starting wailing, fat tears streaming down his little face.

"Dammit!" She hissed before moving across the kitchen and hiking Eddie out of his high chair. Cradling the phone on her shoulder she pulled him close to her chest, rubbing his back absent mindedly in soothing circles, trying to calm his frantic screaming.

"Is your equipment making you deaf of something? Did I ever say you didn't understand?" Edward yelled harshly, causing Winry to flinch and straiten her shoulders, taking the hand from her sons back to again grip the phone hard in her hand. Little Eddie continued to wail, his pitch reaching an ear ringing screech. '_Alright, enough is enough. I can't deal with this shit right now._'

"No Edward, I don't think you understand. Your brother and the woman he might possibly, one day, marry, is coming from Xing to see us for Christmas. Not only are they coming to see us, but they are coming for Eddie too. You know, Eddie, your son. Your baby who's not even a year old and celebrating his first Christmas. Now he'll be celebrating his Christmas without his father. What will you miss next Edward? His birthday? If you keep this up then you're going to fall into a vicious cycle that in the end will make you like the man you hate-your father. Your father, who you claim abandoned you and yet you fail to see how your going to disappoint Eddie in the same way!" Winry stopped her rant, panting mildly for some much needed air.

She knew she had gone too far, but there was no turning back now. "You don't need to be in the military! It pulls you from your family when it doesn't need to! You're pulling yourself away from us. I just want you to think about that Edward." Finishing, Winry paused. She heard nothing from her husband on the other line, but knew he was listening to ever word, hanging off every sentence.

"Finish work, we love you. Bye." She said quietly, all the anger suddenly draining from her body. With her shoulders sagging she pulled the phone away from her ear, placing it back in its cradle. She placed a delicate hand behind her crying sons head, holding him close to her heart.

Shushing him she bounced from foot to foot gently, adding her motherly humming to the mix when nothing could quail his anxiety. Her attempts to calm her frazzled baby failed short and she knew she couldn't help him with tears of her won falling from her lashes.

"Oh Eddie, I'm sorry, Mommy's so sorry." She murmured against his warm head, kissing him softly and waiting for him to fall asleep in her arms. All the while trying to push away the hurt she felt clenching at her heart.

It was going to be a lonely Christmas.

**OoOoOo**

He couldn't move.

It seemed as if not a muscle in his body could relax enough for him to pull the now dead phone from his ear.

He had fucked up.

Nothing could take back wheat he heard in his wife's voice-pain. But not just any pain. Oh no, it was the pain Edward never wanted to hear in her voice. It was a heartbreaking pain. Heartbreak for him, for his child, for her, and for their family.

He had put that pain there too.

Edward slammed the phone down, hoping it would break into millions of tiny pieces.

"Fuck!" He yelled loudly, running his hands through his hair. He tugged at the ends of the strands, feeling the pain in his scalp. Nothing though-_nothing_-could take the anger away.

He needed to punch something.

He stood quickly, grabbing his jacking off the back of his chair and throwing it over his shoulders as he stormed out of his office. Edward ignored everything as he walked out of his office. He knew that at the level he was screaming at his secretary had probably again heard his entire conversation unintentionally. Hell, everyone in the building could have probably heard the entire screaming match he just had with his wife.

Stealthily he ignored his secretary as she called his name, attempting to gain his attention. Screw that, he didn't need any new paper work at the moment.

"Colonel Elric!" was the last thing he heard as he turned the corner, blatantly ignoring everything.

His boots clicked ominously through the corridor while he walked down the always clean hallways. It was like the irritating squeaks kept pushing his button with every step. He'd have to be careful and ignore that too.

Edward shifted his eyes to the windows running along with the wall, watching the wind picking up speed, promising snow.

His brow furrowed.

Winry had told his excitedly that it was snowing in Resembool before he went and pissed her off.

Dammit, he just wanted to be home!

"Well now, if it isn't the former Fullmetal. Oh, and what's this? Who's pissed in your shoes?"

Edward stopped dead, feeling a severe tick work in his eye.

Ah, just the stress relief he needed.

"Now what, pray tell, is the Fuhreh doing way out here?" Edward scathingly asked, turning on his heel to glare at the man.

Fuhreh Mustang smirked at him, instantly noting the mood he was in. Fullmetal was just too fun to mess with when his panties were in a bunch.

"Why, I come down here all the time to frequently check on my subordinates." Mustang explained smoothly, knowing the dig Edward got from him when he referred to him as a subordinate.

Scoffing, Edward decided he didn't have the patients to deal with Mustang. He was, after all, on a mission to break something. He didn't really think that anyone would appreciate him breaking the Fuhreh's face.

"Yah, well you'll have to excuse me." He told Mustang starkly before turning again and walking away.

Though Mustang was a very difficult person to walk away from.

"Why, where are you going?" He uncharacteristically asked, seeing how moody the Elric brother was. Edward attempted to not jump in surprise. The bastard had gained a new speed to catch up with him it seemed.

"The gym." He replied shortly.

"Ah, I see, Winry is mad at you. What did you do this time?" Mustang asked knowingly, watching as a fire took ablaze in Edwards eyes.

"Fuck you sir!" He growled, swiftly pivoting to glare at the man (thankfully no longer having to glare _up_ at the man). Mustang smirked before placing a hand over his heart. "I'm so wounded Fullmetal. Maybe I should write you up for insubordination?" He asked mockingly, both men knowing the jest was an empty threat.

"You know Mustang, normally I wouldn't care what you said to me, but today I'm not in the mood. Why'd you deny my leave chit?" He demanded, pocking Mustang in the chest with his finger-as hard as he could just to spite him.

Edward scoffed to himself. '_I hope it leaves a freaking bruise._'

Mustang stared at him completely unfazed, one eye brow arching in confusion.

"Leave chit? I didn't deny any leave chit. They don't get routed up to me." He calmly told Fullmetal, the truths in his words there and unable to let Edward deny them.

Edward shook his head. "Yeah, whatever. Winry's pissed and I'm in the dog house."

A silence fell over the two.

"I love dogs."

Edward rolled his eyes hard, feeling the familiar vein pulsing in his forehead. "Shut up." He hissed.

A silence fell over the two. Edward watched as the sky finally gave and allowed the snow to fall.

"I think that after this year then I'm done." He said suddenly.

"What?" Roy asked, his eyes snapping to the man lost in his own head.

"I have a family. And I'm my father's child, but I won't wrong my child like he wrong Al and me." Edward explained. Mustang knew that for him to be spilling something so private with him that he had to be completely serious. With a new determination Edward looked back at Fuhreh Mustang.

"After the holidays my resignation papers will be on your desk."

With that finalized he turned, leaving the older man to his own devices.

"Hey Edward!" Mustang called out.

Edward paused, turning his head only slightly towards his superior to let him know he was listening.

"When you're out we'll have a beer together. And you can give me my 500 cen back."

Edward smirked before turning again, raising his hand languidly in afterthought as he walked away. For once he was in complete nonverbal agreement with his Fuhreh.

**OoOoOo**

Roy Mustang sighed as he put his pen down. He interlaced his fingers together, placing his chin on his knuckles.

"I think I've gone soft." He said to no one in particular as he stared down at the document on his desk. It bold black letters the title read '_Request for Leave_'.

"Merry Christmas Winry, I owed you anyways." He murmured, staring at the line he had dashed through on denied and then his signature in the approved box.

He turned in his chair. "You deserve it Edward."

Mustang picked his phone up from his desk, dialing a quick extension. He only had to wait for a moment. "Yes, this is Fuhreh Mustang; please inform Colonel Elric that his leave has been approved. Thank you." He smiled as he hung up the phone.

'_That brat better be grateful._'

**OoOoO**

A.N. Wah! Okay so this is kind of bitter sweet and later I might do a companion piece to it. I was asked if these fit together. I'm trying to fit them together but I know that some of them don't so if I make one that will go directly with another than I'll tell y'all, but other than that its probably best to consider all these stand alone pieces.

This one is kind of warm to me though. I'm in the military and wasn't supposed to be spending Christmas with my family but low and behold someone above me is watching my back and it was approved the other day! So I'll be able to see my family for the holidays. It's an amazing feeling really! And I know that as an officer Edward can just take it off in the real life, but this is just a story, so let's just pretend that yes he can voluntarily quit (not be obligated to a contract for years *cough*me*cough*) but he still has to put in request chits like the rest of us! haha, I'll be posting another soon! These things keep falling from my fingers! Thank you for the feedback! I love it!

Mai


	5. 5 Strays

**Disclaimer: **Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

**Chapter Five: Strays**

**OoOoOo**

Winry stared at her five year old daughter, the hope in her large blue eyes shining brightly. Quickly she looked away from the little girl.

Of course Edward would make her the bad guy in these situations. She knew what he would say to her daughter heedless of her desperate pleas, but still-she hated when Sara tried to mom and pop things between her and Edward.

Winry peeked a look at the little girl. In her small hands was an even smaller animal staring up at her with equally large eyes, a fuzzy tuff of fur framing its face adding to the overall pathetic effect to the whole situation.

'_God!_' Winry huffed to herself. '_I am _not _going to be the bad guy today._'

Squatting Winry put two fingers on the small kitten's head. She smiled as she pet the tiny thing, feeling its happy purr through her fingers and a small head butt in encouragement to continue the soothing petting.

"Sara, you know how your Daddy is about these things." She tried to tell her, watching the hope slowly dim from her eyes. "If it were up to me I'd let you have this cute little thing, but Daddy doesn't like strays."

Fat tears welled in her daughters eyes.

"But Mommy, I'll take good care of her." Her voice waivered dangerously in an effort to not break into sobbing wails.

"How about this," Winry said quickly, attempting to sooth her baby girl, "Why don't you ask Daddy?"

Sara bit her lip before looking away, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

"I don't have to, Daddy will say no." She mumbled sadly, pulling the kitten closer to her body at the thought of just releasing her.

"You never know." Winry soothed, a small amount of hope sparking in her own voice. '_I mean really_' She thought angrily, '_what's wrong with a small kitten! Edward can get over it. If he says no to her then I'll beat the crap out of him._'

What she needed was a plan.

Domestic abuse?

No, she liked to think of it as keeping the man in line.

"No, I know he'll say no." Sara mumbled, her gaze never leaving the floor at her feet.

"Well then, I think it's time for your Mommy to teach you the art of persuasion." A smirk grew on her face. Oh, her plan was flawless.

"What do you mean?" Ah, her little girl was so innocently clueless. She really had no idea how tightly wound Edward was around her cute little fingers.

Winry smiled in mischief, motioning for Sara to come closer to her.

"No Daddy can deny their little girl something she really really wants."

Sara smiled brightly.

"You mean Daddy will let me keep her?" She blurted in excitement.

"Sure he will." Or he'd be broken. "But first we give him a little...incentive."

Sara jumped away from her mother, a bright smile on her face, the kitten grasped in a near death grip by this point.

"I'll go ask him now!" She told Winry quickly, spinning away from her to go find her Daddy.

"No!" She grabbed her daughter quickly by the arm, bringing Sara back to her. "First things first!"

Sara stared at her in confusion, the kitten cocking its head also.

"You need a plan."

**OoOoOo**

Edward threw himself down in exhaustion, stretching out as far as his body would allow and groaning in content as his joints popped in glee.

'_Thank God that's done._' The thought was followed by his babyish nursing of his pulsing funny bone. So what, it hurt.

He had stopped, out of the kindness of his freaking heart, to help the little old lady down the street, and what does she do? Use him like a bloody pack mule, that's what.

'_It's a conspiracy._' He might be a bit begrudging of the whole situation. Sue him.

Just as his muscles finally began to unwind he heard a small squeak followed by the pitter patter of feet that could only belong to his youngest.

He pealed his eyes open, being met with two large blue eyes staring at him...as well as two large silted eyes matching the color of his own.

"No." It was almost an instinctual response now; with the amount of small animals Al had tried to sneak past him in the past it was no wonder that he hadn't just taken a job with animal control. He could catch just about any animal out there, as well as sniff out when one was being hidden from him.

The thought of Winry's wraths from working for a pound didn't suit his fancy however so he refrained.

He would like to keep his head thank you very much.

Pun-oh yeah, it was intended.

"Bu-bu-but! Daddy! You didn't give me a chance to explain!" Sara defended quickly.

"Sara, you know I don't do animals."

"But Den needs a friend!"

Edward looked at the said animal. That damn thing was so old it could barley go outside without his or Winry's help. It didn't need a _friend_. The damn thing needed to die.

Quickly he looked around for his wife.

Sometimes he swore she could read his mind, and already he could feel a wrench in the cornea.

"Sara, you can even ask Uncle Al, Daddy does _**not **_do cats."

"But this wouldn't be yours, she'd be mine!"

Edward closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"No, I don't think so."

Tears welled in Sara's eyes, though she would not yet admit defeat. She stood there for a second, waiting to do what Mommy had told her to do.

Finally Edward looked her in the eye.

Game, set, and match.

Catching his eye she dipped her head, looking up at him slowly with fat tears on her lashes. Her bottom lip jutted out next, a tiny tremor creeping into it. It didn't help any that the damn cat was imitating her every move.

'_No dammit!_' Edward thought in distress, feeling a knot tie in his throat. He hated-absolutely _**hated**_ when she look at him like that! How could anyone possibly deny that face anything! It would be like putting the wrench in his frontal lobe himself.

He was only lucky that she hadn't said..._it_ yet.

"Please"

He was so fucked.

Ah, and there was the tell tale punch in the gut he always got when she spoke to him like that.

Edward sighed in defeat. Really, this was ridiculous.

"Fine." He mumbled darkly, glaring at the little tuff of fur that dare have the title of kitten.

Sara squealed happily, spinning in a circle once before bringing the kitten up to her face and kissing it sweetly. It meowed happily, head butting her as a clumsy purr began vibrating her body.

"I'm going to my room now!" She yelled happily, stumbling up the steps in her haste to organize her room for her new roommate.

Edward glared at nothing in particular. Admitting defeat was not one of his specialties.

A movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked up grumpily, seeing the golden hair of his wife swish away before a boisterous laugh was heard echoing from the kitchen.

"Bitch." He mumbled to himself.

Revenge was always a dish best served cold. He wasn't stupid, though he may act it from time to time to time; he knew Winry had put Sara up to that whole ordeal.

A dark smirk crawled onto his face.

He had his own plan to execute on his unsuspecting wife.

**OoOoOo**

_Please comment~!_


	6. 6 Battle Scars

**Disclaimer: **Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

**Chapter Six: Battle Scars**

**OoOoOo**

"Don't touch it!"

Winry turned her head away, guilt thrumming through her body. She took a deep breath, soothing her frazzled nerves and turned back to her distraught son.

Blood was everywhere, the gash he had on his leg steadily dripping with little signs of stopping.

"Edward, we have to put something on it. You can't just keep bleeding like this." She tried to sooth, bringing a spare clean rag she had to the wound.

He rocked back slightly on his rear, his hands framing-but daring not to touch-the open gash that stung like a bitch.

"Dammit!" He hissed angrily as she pressed the rag against his leg, pushing down on it hard as she reached behind her for a roll of flexible wire, tying it around the leg firmly to keep the rag in place.

"I'm going to overlook your use of that word right now mister." She mumbled to him as she whipped her brow of the accumulating sweat.

"Really Mother, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't pick a fight with me right now!" The disgruntled teen spat while trying to ignore the now steady pulsing in his lower leg.

"Your Father should be home soon, so I'm going to take you upstairs and try to clean and rewrap this bad boy."

It was to the point now where she was talking more out of the comfort for her son rather than for any type of meaning.

When she had heard the crash from the basement she didn't know what she expected. Maybe some broken equipment or bruised child. Not the scene she saw.

It was pure panic when she first entered the room. One of her worst nightmares taking form into reality, and now she understood fully why Grandma Pinako was always with her when she was in the basement 'tweaking' with automail as a child.

Really, when Eddie first started showing interest in automail it was a hallelujah moment. Edward was a bit disappointed though, hoping that his first born would take an interest in the new alchemy he and Al were working on. For her it was a dream come true. In her normal fashion Winry had taken it all in stride. Any time Eddie asked her a question about automail, or even just wanted to watch her while she worked on Edward's leg, she would gladly allow him, all the while explaining step by step the process and mechanics she was using.

He was like a sponge.

He began sitting in with her more frequently as new customers came through the door, silently watching her and asking questions when he was unsure of something she had done. He even began helping her. Slowly he would start handing her equipment, memorizing the names of metals and reading into anatomy text books and blood types. He began showing signs that the Rockbell blood ran through his veins, and he showed it so passionately. Looking back on how much he had learned in such a small amount of time Winry was floored.

She wondered how her parents felt, watching her as she took automail and ran with it. As she started making small trinkets for them here and there, littering the house with useless scraps of metal that jingled and moved. She wondered if they felt the way she did now, even with such the small amount of time she had with them.

It brought tears to her eyes, to be watching Edward now.

He had grown up so much and she so desperately wanted to protect him. When he first cut himself on the equipment she had gone ape shit. She yanked him from the basement, lecturing him on the importance of safety and what to do in adverse situations. She then proceeded to ban him from the basement till she saw it fit to allow him in there-with her supervision only of course.

That didn't last long though, maybe a night or two. She was woken up one night by Edward's leg brushing against her own, the cold shocking her out of sleep. Den had whined helplessly from her bedside so she got up, ready to take him outside. As she crept down the stairs a buzzing filled the room.

Winry was no stranger to the mechanical sounds of a work in progress. Instantly she knew what was going on. She set Den outside quietly and peaked in on her eldest. He was hunched over the work table, his shoulders rolled back and a determined set to his mouth.

So much was he like her in that moment.

And so much was he like his father in that moment.

And right then she knew that she could deny him nothing, especially the opportunity to embrace and grow this passion he had for automail.

She had taught him all she could. Over the course of years she molded his brain, filling it with bits of information, watching as he took it all in, learning it all so well, and so fast. He was like his father in the sense of exploration. He began reading books upon books. He read not only of the human anatomy, but of medicinal herbs, multiple medical procedures and with waxing molds. He had an accumulation of books he read and studied on.

After that it wasn't long until he was with her during the first operation her patients had to undergo for the 'luxury' of automail limbs. He helped her flawlessly, making sure everything was sterile, keeping a close eye on their vitals, and helping keep the patients calm. Even with the very first connection of the nerves he didn't panic.

Not like she had.

Not like when Edward was connected.

It couldn't be put into words how proud she was. To say she was proud would be an understatement and nothing seemed to compare or do the emotion she felt enough justice to name. It was a warming, pulling, searing, tear wrenching emotion. It made her so happy to watch him, while simultaneously scaring her.

She was confident in her son-never had she doubted the ability of the child. However, a rouge or malfunctioning machine was not something that was unheard of.

She had the great displeasure of working on a fellow automail mechanic after he had an accident with an eclectic saw. Afterwards all that ran through her mind for days on end was how easily that could be her own son; her baby.

Eddie was not discouraged. Not in the least. He had huffed under his breath about '_Stupid wanna be Automail Mechanics_' as he diligently work with her on the disfigured mass of flesh, blood, and bone that used to be a functioning hand.

Winry had allowed Edward too slowly start working without her supervision. Initially it had been by a complete accident. A customer had called while she was out and needed a rush order. Eddie had taken it upon himself to work on the part before shipping it out, telling her proudly how he had done it on his own when she returned.

Even through her peeved behavior he could tell she appreciated it and slowly she allowed him to take on tasks of his own.

Arrogance was a killer though.

Something his father _clearly_ needed to have a talk with him about.

Winry looped her arm under the teenagers knees, her other arm supporting his back as she lifted him, carrying him to the main room.

"Mother, I can walk!" He protested at her.

She ignored him. There was really no arguing with him in a situation like this.

"How about you do your poor Mother a favor and shut up." She told him smoothly, his attitude and the stress from seeing the carnage finally getting to her.

She placed him on the couch before retrieving a chair from the kitchen. She ran around for a while, gathering everything she would need for a procedure she really _never _wanted to do on any of her children.

Sutures. Stitches. Whatever you preferred to call them.

She pulled the chair in front of him, placing a bowl with warm water and clean rags on the table. She then pulled her first aid kit from across her shoulders, looking at the satchel with contempt. This was her heavy duty first aid kit. The one she always kept on standby when Edward and Al were out fighting the forces of evil. She placed the contents in it on the table in slow methodical movements, her mind wondering to different times. During times that required her to whip it out.

This bag was _not _supposed to be used on over arrogant children.

"Give me your leg." She demanded shortly, her tone clipped and impatient.

Now was not the time to be fighting, and Eddie wasn't stupid enough to ignore his Mother's warning tones. Really, how his Dad got into so much trouble with her was a mystery, she was a very easy person to read.

He must be a masochist.

He pulled his leg up, placing it slowly into her lap. She put pressure on the cloth, pleased to note the make shift bandage had yet to bleed through.

He would live, that was a good sign.

Maybe.

She might kill him later, she hadn't decided yet.

Smoothly Winry untied the wire bindings with her other hand, letting them drop uselessly to the floor. Reaching over she grabbed the rag damp with the warm water. As she began lifting the bloodied rag from Edward's leg he hissed angrily through his teeth, clenching his eyes shut tightly.

"Shit!"

Winry glanced at his face to see it scrunched up in pain before shifting her eyes back to the wound.

It had begun to clot, the blood flow now only a slow dribble. The wound itself was remarkably a clean cut. Other than the small amount of cauterization on the inside of the wound it was all remarkably clean. She flushed the gash, waiting till only mostly water was flowing out of the wound until she grabbed her needle.

And here begins the part she hated.

With a steady hand (she would have to pat herself on the back for that accomplishment later) she slowly began lacing her son back up. It didn't take long with her skills, only about thirty minutes with the end result of sixteen stitches. She whipped it down one more time and placed a fresh piece of gauze over it, taping it all up softly with a liberal amount of medical tape.

Edward said nothing through the ordeal, the only indication that he had yet to pass out being the soft clenching and unclenching of his hand.

Reaching into her bag Winry placed two small white tables into Edward's hand. She reached behind her to grab a glass he hadn't originally noticed, passing it to him slowly.

"It will help with the pain." Her voice was a beacon in the quiet room.

"Why didn't you give me these earlier?" Eddie demanded, offended and slightly a little hurt that his mother had waited until after she'd punctured his flesh sixteen times to give him the pain medicine.

"Something your father preaches. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You want to be hot shit, then you can deal with hot shit."

Edward looked away from the woman, feeling an incredible amount of shame. She was really mad at him.

"That and aspirin thins the blood." She said as she stood, taking all her equipment with her.

Edward sat alone in the living room, staring aimlessly at the windows that lead to the beautiful world outside on this ever so lovely day in Resembol. The only sounds he heard were from his Mothers occasional slam as she cleaned the items she'd just used on him. Without his sisters here it was surprisingly quiet, and right now he wanted any form of noise to distract him from the quiet his Mother gave him.

She walked back into the room, sitting stiffly in the chair his father usually occupied.

"So do you want to tell me what the hell happened?" She pried while her eyes bored dangerous holes into the boy.

"I was working with your new electric saw, the one that uses the chilling technique, and it sputtered at me, caused me to lose my grip and I dropped it. It fell on my leg." His excuse was clipped, short and to the point.

Winry looked down at his clean bandage. "That explains the cauterization." She mumbled to herself.

"I'm sorry Mom."

Winry stood up, placing her hand softly on his head.

"I'm going to go clean up the mess before your father comes home. Don't make a mess up here please."

With that she turned, heading back into the room that she wanted nothing to do with her son anymore.

The sight that greeted her was the same as earlier, the only exception being the absence of her son hunched over his leg in shocked pain.

The chair he had been sitting in was knocked over, a spray of blood running down the legs. On the floor the cause of everything sat in innocent bliss, blood smeared along its body. Edward's hand print sat beside an even larger puddle of blood and many different nuts, sockets, and screws laid scattered across the floor.

This was going to take a while.

Rolling her sleeves up she walked over to the sink they had built in a couple years back.

'_Well, time to get to work._'

**OoOoOo**

Hours later Winry was hunched over a bucket, the water a dullish pink color. Sweat beaded on her brow, her body falling into a rhythm again as she scrubbed at the wooden floors. The blood had stained the hard wood, leaving a dark impression on everything it touched.

So preoccupied with the task at hand she didn't hear the basement door open or the uneven steps of flesh and metal.

A warm hand wrapped around her waist, the other falling onto her tightly clasped fists balled up with a pink rag.

"Winry stop."

The soft voice of her husband soothed, pulling her hands slowly from the floor and towards her chest. She had been working herself into a fit. He could tell by how stiff her body was, and how red her fingers were from rubbing them raw.

A small tremor began in her body and quickly Edward spun her around, engulfing her into his warm arms.

His day had been fairly normal. As normal as it could be with two happy girls chatting animatedly to everyone and anything that would be willing to listen. Edward was glad that Sara and Sophie got along so well, but the insistent girly chatter hardly made any sense to him. He was hoping that one of these days he could convince Winry to give him another boy.

Preferably one that would take an interest in freaking alchemy.

After running around town for all the small things Winry needed for both upcoming customers and items around the house the trio had made their way home. Everything seemed normal enough. The only difference in his day had been when he walked into the house, seeing his eldest sitting in the room, staring aimlessly at the window outside. His sullen attitude was not hard to miss.

The girls paid no heed to it and quickly ran off in a spout of giggles and happiness, checking on the new litter of kittens that Sara's cat had birthed.

Her mirth was _not _lost on him.

He had waited for the girls to leave before he confronted Eddie, taking note of the gauze taped to his leg.

He explained quietly what had happened, his gaze never wavering from the sea of green just beyond the glass windows.

Edward put a hand on Eddies head, knowing he was worried about his mother.

"She's been down there for a couple of hours now." He mumbled miserably, balling his fists in his lap.

"I'll go talk to her. She was probably just worried. It'll be okay Eddie."

He sparred his eldest a brief hug before making his way to the basement.

Winry sat hunched over a stain that looked like it would not come out, her breathing labored as she swayed back and forth, putting all her strength and effort into ridding the floor of the residual blood.

Which brought him to where he was now.

"He's ok." He said soothingly into her hair, kissing her temple and rocking her softly as he felt the front of his shirt dampen.

His wife was so emotional.

But it was one of the reasons he loved her to death. He would go to hell and back for her if she asked it of him.

"I was so scared." She whispered into his shirt, reaching up and gripping the front of his, balling it tightly. Her tears continued silently, streaming in large rivers down her red blotched face. From the looks of it she had been holding back her pain for quite a few hours now.

"It's okay to be scared, but Winry, their kids. They're going to get scuffed up every now and then." Winry wondered how he could be so level headed about the whole thing. She closed her eyes slowly, making her tears stop as Edward rubbed soothing circles along her back, his gentle rocking calming her frayed nerves.

"I only want them to be safe. It was so horrible when you were gone and I never knew if you were dead or alive, and to see Eddie so messed up-because of something I encouraged, it kills me." She confessed with a slide of her hands from his front to his neck, wrapping around him in a hug as she planted her face into his neck.

"I hate to break it to you Win, but he's my son, and even if you _hadn't _encouraged him, he still would have wound up doing automail. We Elric's stick to the things we love." Edward said with a chuckle, feeling her smile against her neck.

That was good.

"You have so many scars, Edward. You have so many scars and so much pain. I never wanted Eddie to experience that. I wanted him to be so ignorantly blissful of that pain." She told him, pulling her face out of his neck to look into his golden eyes, stroking a cheek softly.

Edward smiled at her, capturing her fingers in his hand and bringing it to his lips, kissing them soundlessly.

"Every man needs a battle scar Win; otherwise our women won't look at us so adoringly like you look at me."

She laughed lightly, kissing him on the forehead and standing up slowly with his help, her back popping unhappily.

"Uhg, that's the last time that I stay bent over like that for so long." She rubbed absently at the small of her back, looking up just in time so see her husband's cheeky smile.

"Pervert."

He threw his head back in laughter as she grabbed a nearby wrench.

"I didn't even say anything!" He said with a laugh, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"You don't have to, I can read those lecherous thoughts going right through your head." She said in mock anger, her smile showing him she wasn't serious.

Reaching up he tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

"I think you need to go do some damage control with your son. If he's anything like me-and let's face it, that kid is _all_ me-then he's really beating himself up about this." Edward told her softly, stepping towards the mess.

"I'll clean this up, you go talk to Eddie."

Winry smiled at him, pulling on the strings to her apron and placing it on the work table.

She treaded up the stairs quietly, pausing to stare at her son. He sat on the couch, his hands balled in his lap and his face towards the window. His eyes had a far off look to them, reminding her of when Edward was younger and thought back constantly to the trials he had been through.

She walked over to him, sitting briskly on the empty cushion and pulling his head to her shoulder. He stiffened as she began stoking his head, running her fingers through the golden strands like she use to when he was a little boy and would rest his head in her lap. Slowly he relaxed, his shoulders slumping and his breathing deepening.

"I'm sorry Eddie. I was just so scared when I walked in and saw that mess." Winry said, hoping her son would see where she was coming from.

"I know you were just working and accidents happen, but you have to remember that you're still my baby-you'll always be my baby-and I was being over protective." She continued, letting him pull away from her to look up at her face.

"I'm sorry Mom," He mumbled, looking away in shame, "I should have been more careful."

Winry laughed softly, ruffling his hair playfully, causing him to look up in mock horror.

"Well you're sorry, I'm sorry; we're all so sorry, so let's let water under the bridge be water under the bridge." She smiled at the troubled teen, "Just be more careful in the future. I'm not going to punish you for this. It was an accident, and what kind of person would I be if I kept you from what you love?"

Edward smiled happily, hugging his mother tightly.

"I love you Mom."

Winry laughed happily, pulling him away from her and kissing him on the cheek.

"I love you too baby."

"So cute." A voice said from behind.

"Ah, Edward Senior, how nice of you to ruin a moment between a son and his mother." Winry said, turning to glare at her husband.

"Senior? I'm _no _senior! I'm barely 33!" He said with a huff, walking into the kitchen to dump all the cleaning supplies Winry had used earlier. He had admired his wife and child for a few minutes before deciding that was _way_ too much mush in his family for a day. A man could only take so much in one sitting.

He walked back into the living room proudly, puffing his chest in pride.

"Besides, this should be a moment between a father and his son! Eddie here has his first battle scar! It needs to go down in the books!" He said, clapping his son on the shoulder. Eddie blushed as bright as a tomato, looking away from his father's praise.

"A battle scar?" He asked with confusion.

Edward laughed happily. "Why yes! A battle scar! Let me demonstrate by telling you about mine!"

Winry stood up, walking away from the two that would talk nonstop for the rest of the day about destruction. She ran a hand down her face, shaking her head.

"Oh, my family." She mumbled, hearing two sharp screams from upstairs followed by a course of '_Mooooom!_'

It was never a dull day in the Elric house.

**OoOoOo**

_Please Comment!_

Soooooo I wasn't going to post this till tomorrow but I have very little self control...oops...


	7. 7 Ballerina

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

_And a huge Thank You to my new Beta __**The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder**__!_

**Chapter Seven: Ballerinas**

**OoOoOo**

This was a gut wrenching feeling.

Winry felt her stomach tighten and her eyes pinching at the corners. She would not cry. She just had to keep telling herself that.

Carefully she bent down, picking up the small pieces of glass on the floor. In her hand they sat innocently, now in three small pieces whereas before it was only one.

Her breath caught in her throat.

'No. No. No!' she thought desperately, bringing the pieces closer to her disbelieving eyes and willing them to magically mend themselves back into one solid object.

'No, no, no!' An anxious desperation threatened to choke her, the heat flashing through her veins causing a small tremor to start in her arms.

To any other person in passing she might seem crazy, clutching shards in her hands close to the point of tears. But to Winry she was clutching something hat held so much more than sharp edges of glass. What was once a small figurine of an even smaller ballerina was now a smashed momentous of the past.

Thick tears welled in her eyes. It was the glass ballerina her mother had given her as a forget-me-not before she and her father headed out to Ishval.

Her heart constricted in her chest painfully.

Her mother had always said she was her little ballerina. Winry remembered the days she would tell her that, her voice light and musical and her much younger self loving it. She remembered laughing and twirling around her mother's feet in innocent delight every time she said it, her small self digging endlessly for more approval.

When her parents left they took her twirling dances with them.

The only reminder now of her carefree days laying in small hidden treasures scattered about the house, tucked away safely in little nooks and crannies.

And here she was; callously going and breaking one.

In a rush to meet Edward out for lunch she had ripped her cabinet open, the glass figurine toppling out and over the edge before Winry had even realized what was happening.

To Winry it almost felt as if her mother had died all over again.

"No." she whispered softly, her vision blurring as her tears welled from her eyes. They toppled over her lashes and down her cheeks, much in the same way her ballerina had.

She bit her lip, stifling a sob as her fingers began shaking.

How could she have been so thoughtless and let such an unneeded mistake happen? In her normal male like self she had gone and destroyed something so small.

Her agony ten folded.

It seemed as if no matter how many skirts she wore or how many earrings she had she would never be graceful like her mother's ballerina.

The ballerina her tactlessness had just violently ended.

She couldn't help but wonder what her mother would think of her if she could see her now. Her mother. The woman who in her eyes was the ideal picture of what a kind and loving mother was. She was the perfect representation of what a strong woman was; reflecting in her a fine resigned grace as well as an inner strength.

Winry shook her head, hiding her face behind a veil of hair.

She didn't even want to know what her mother would think.

"Winry."

She twitched in surprise but otherwise did not move from her crouched position. She must have been like that for a while…Edward was in town, she last thought.

"Hey what's wrong?" he asked her softly, his voice suddenly behind her.

Winry squared her shoulders, shaking her head but still refusing to move from her spot on the floor and keeping her face concealed behind her long tresses. She knew how much Edward hated her crying, and here she was weeping like a baby. She wished for once that she could possess the refined grace and strength her mother possessed. She wished she could make her mother proud of her. She seriously doubted that her mother stood around and cried as much as she did.

"Winry?" Edward called again, placing his hand carefully on her shoulder.

He had been slowly making his way home when Winry was late. That in itself was very unlike her. She was normally beyond punctual, so when he had been sitting at the restaurant and ten minutes passed with no sign of her he knew something was wrong. Sure, the waiter might have thought he was crazy for leaving in what most people would call a fashionably late time, but he knew something had to be up.

When he first entered the house he was surprised to see she hadn't left at all and even more so when he saw her hunched over the floor in misery. Panic had instantly welled in his throat until he noticed her tightly clenched fist. He'd known her long enough to recognize when she was feeling down and needed help back up.

"Hey what happened?" he probed gently, tugging her shoulder back in an attempt to make her look up at him. He knew that she was crying. That much was obvious, but she normally had no problem crying in front of him. It wasn't normal for her to hide her misery from him, and that in its entirety was concerning. He wanted her to always feel like she could lean on him, no matter the situation.

Winry resisted the soft tugging briefly, lowering her face further to hide her pain. She didn't want to burden Edward with her nonsense. She knew he would think it silly to cry over something so small, and she wasn't in the best of moods to deal with his blunt behavior.

The tugging on her shoulder became a little more persistent and slowly she felt the heat rise to her head.

"If you don't leave me alone then I'm going to permanently lodge a wrench in your skull." she seethed threateningly, her emotions jumping all over the place. It wasn't that she didn't love the man, but she really wanted to just wallow without the fear of what he might think of her for three freaking seconds.

"Fuck that!" she heard Edward yell at her before she found the world tilting and rushing past her in a blur of movements, the hand on her shoulder no longer tugging but rather shoving her around to face him.

His own angry expression stated back at hers, his hands clamped firmly on her shoulders. It was hard enough to demand attention, but not hard enough to hurt her.

He would never physically hurt her.

Winry however, was no longer in the mood to wallow and immediately saw a perfect opponent to form her despair into anger. She glared hotly at him, feeling the tears on her cheeks dry in defiance and her eyes glass over in a boiling ferocity.

Edward mentally smirked to himself as he saw the fire spark in her eyes. It was always much easier to deal with her anger, and she always tended to talk—well, yell would be the correct term—about her issue when she was mad.

Now all he had to do was goad her till the point of breaking.

Then he could do his husbandly duties and fix it.

Whatever it was. He was still working on that part.

"What the hell is your problem?" he demanded, watching as her anger peaked to a new level.

"Leave me alone!" she spat at him, uncurling one of her hands and slapping away at his wrists on her shoulders. He would not be defeated that easily though.

"Do you care to explain why I'm sitting by myself at a restaurant I didn't even want to go to with my wife nowhere to be seen, and when I finally get home to see where the hell she is I find her on the floor bawling like her dog died?" he yelled in her face, his eyes daring her to yell back at him. He wasn't really mad that she didn't show up, he didn't was to eat at that place anyways, but he did mind having his concern brushed off.

Equivalent exchange, dammit. He asks her, she tells him, he makes it better, she's happy, and they go on.

And though she might not like the basic law of Alchemy, it was something that he still secretly stroked in the dark—yes, behind her back.

He was still weary of abandoning the very moral he'd grown up with.

"You ass!" Winry yelled back at him, her anger set and locked on him.

Really sometimes she was too easy to read.

"I didn't mean to not show up! I was running late and rushing like a brute and ended up breaking something important to me! It's stupid; you wouldn't care, so leave me alone!" she demanded, pushing against him with all her might and standing up quickly. Edward stood quickly with her, grabbing her wrist as she tried to push past him. He pulled her into his chest, grabbing the back of her head and forcing her to stay put.

"Really Winry, if I didn't care I wouldn't have asked."

The girl in his arms was silent, her shoulders shaking minutely and her free hand coming up to grasp the bottom of his shirt in a tight grasp.

"Now," Edward began, still holding her firmly to him, "why don't you tell me what happened."

A deep sniffle was his answer followed by a forming water blotch on his shirt.

"If it makes you cry this hard, Winry, then it's not 'nothing'. You might as well just tell me." He told her, trying to keep the gruffness out of his voice. He still found it difficult from time to time to open up to her in really tense situations. It wasn't that he didn't trust her or anything, it was just that after a life time of hiding his own pain and to suddenly be the person to take away someone else's it was at times uncomfortable—but still greatly rewarding to him in the end.

He felt her pull back a bit from him, bringing her closed fist between their bodies.

Edward raised a brow, though she wasn't looking at him. Her attention was focused solely on her hand. Slowly she unwrapped her fingers, showing him wordlessly what it was that had caused her such distress. He looked in confusion, seeing broken pieces of glass sitting in her palm.

"What is it?" he asked her quietly, releasing her head to bring his hand down and place it below hers, watching as she tipped her hand and let the pieces drop in his.

"It was a ballerina." she said quietly. "My mother gave it to me."

And it was clear.

Clear as day in fact.

Edward grimaced to himself. This was a pain that he had little control over, and a deep pain that he shared with her. There was nothing he could do to make her feel better but to be there for her.

Just like she was for him.

He tucked the shards into his pocket and enveloped her into a hug, wrapping her tightly in his arms.

"I'm sorry." he said quietly.

He felt her nod against his chest, though she said nothing. Nothing else could really be said.

'It was a time for a change in scenery.' Edward thought to himself, rubbing her back in small comforting circles as she settled down, finally relying on his strength too.

"Hey why don't we go for a walk or something?" he mumbled into her hair, feeling her nod again against his chest.

"Hey Win?" he probed gently. She made a sound in the back of her throat, letting him know he had her attention. "You know, she would really be proud of you if she could see you today." he told her quietly.

Winry smiled the first smile she had in the last hour.

And just like that it was suddenly all better.

How was it that he always knew what to say to her?

"Thanks Ed." she mumbled back, lacing her fingers with his as he tugged her out of the room and towards the door.

Edward walked along with Winry tucked under his arm, his other hand tucked in his pocket. He ran his fingers distractedly along the small shards sitting heavily in the bottom of his pocket, the edges threatening to cut him if he pressed any harder.

A small smile creased his face.

He knew just the person too who could fix this.

It was about time he visited his brother anyways.

**OoOoOo**

**Alright, so this would have been out sooner but I was having some technical difficulties . Next chapter is already half way typed, hopefully I can finish it today, just leave some love!**

**And again, a super big thank you to my new beta The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder, she's great guys! **


	8. 8 Wild Wild West

**Disclaimer:**_**Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say. **_

_A series of drabbles, enjoy! _

_And a huge Thank You to my new Beta_** The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder!**

**Chapter Eight: Wild Wild West**

**OoOoOo**

It was raining. That always seemed to be the case when he was down in the dumps. It was odd how the rain always seemed to be a direct representation of his moods.

Though, in this case it was fair to say that it was entirely his fault.

Edward groaned to himself as he ran his hand across his face. He had fucked up, and yeah, he was man enough to own up to it.

The rain pelted against the window, the sound a normally soothing pitter patter was now an anxiety inducing noise. Winry is out in that somewhere, he says somewhere in terms of him not knowing where she was. All because he had snapped at her, insulted her self-worth probably in there—though he still failed to see that part—and she had made a mad dash out of the hotel with a flurry of angry parting words.

So now the little blonde was out there somewhere in a town she didn't know, in weather he didn't like, stewing over their last argument.

That was the part that pissed him off the most. He just wished that she had enough sense to stay in the hotel room and stew it out. It would have been a lot more mind settling to know that she was fuming in a room he knew she was safe in rather than in a town he wasn't too sure from time to time if even he was safe in. He begrudgingly knew though, that if he set out to find her and did manage to get her then he would be sporting a new wound on the head. He shuddered at the thought; a wrench in the brain was something he wasn't ready to run off to. He needed to prep himself up for it first.

He stared at the window, his eyes unfocused as he watched the rain fall and dribbled down the glass.

The one thing that truly concerned him about the situation was the delinquents. The crime here and the people who committed them were a special breed all on their own. It was a breed of people that Edward _knew_ Winry had never had to deal with before. He was certain that even in her apprenticeship days in Rush Valley she hadn't ever dealt with people like this. He shifted in his seat, his body tensing at the thoughts of what the people would do to her.

She just didn't know the West like he did. It wasn't that he thought that she was incompetent, like she liked to think he did, it was that her safety and her reckless abandonment at times really worried him. Especially during the days she just ran off willingly with Scar.

But these people weren't Scar.

That thought made his hands clench up, and his teeth grind. Scar might have been angry, but the man still had a set of morals. Morals here were few and far between, they were increasingly hard to come by if you were in the wrong place. And that damn girl always ended up in the wrong places at the wrong times.

A clash of thunder nearly made him jump out of his skin in surprise, his eyes quickly focusing and scanning the road bellow him in an attempt to see if she was walking in.

There was nothing, not even an innocent patron running for cover in the down pour.

See, even the West feared the West.

'_Fuck this_.' He thought to himself. '_Her safety is more important to me than her anger. And that she can get the _hell_ over!_' He stood violently from his chair, and grabbed his coat; swinging it over his body and walking out the door before it even had time to slam shut behind him.

He wasn't going to sit back and let her do as she pleased like a child.

Whether she liked it or not he was going to protect her.

**OoOoOo**

Winry huffed under her breath, kicking a rock in her path and watching as it splashed through heavy forming puddles.

Edward was such an ass sometimes. A horse's ass to be precise.

Here she was, out in the West after _he_ invited _her_ to come along with him—and the first thing he does when they settle into the hotel room? He tells her to only never leave with him and never go out alone!

'_What the hell is that crap about?_' She fumed angrily to herself. '_I've dealt with way more ass holes in my day than he would ever know! It's not easy working in a city that consists of mostly metal men with the ego of a god!_' She huffed and curled her arms under she chest, ignoring the water that had long since soaked her to the bone.

'_He's just looking out for you._' A little voice in her conscious pointed out. She furrowed her brow. Screw that. He wasn't around to 'look out for her' while she was in Rush Valley, so why should she let him baby-sit her now that they were in the West?

She paused at the last thought, her heart softening from the memories. Okay, so it wasn't entirely like that and she knew it. Back then he was trying to help Al and return their bodies. She couldn't forsake him for that. Her mind flipped again. But then again, he couldn't forsake her for not wanting to be looked out for. It was a two way street and she would not be a house wife who sat around and brought her husbands a beer and sandwich at their command.

He needed to practice what he preached in this situation—equivalent exchange. And let's face it, she knew he said he wanted to learn Alkahestry and that Alchemy was flawed, but she had a sneaking suspicious feeling that he was still stuck on his Equivalent Exchange mind set.

She shook her head minutely. Then again, she should have acted her age and not her shoe size in the argument. It wasn't that she had intended to walk out in all her steaming fury; it was just that he always managed to get her so fired up! She could hash out any situation with ease and words like a whip in Rush Valley when men were trying to pull one over her head, and yet one conflict with Edward and she was acting like the prudent child he just accused her of acting.

It seemed like there were still some things in their relationship that they both needed to hash out.

Communication, communication, communication. That was the one thing that Garfiel had always told her the two lacked when she had bitched to him about her problems. It seemed like even here now with both of them in the same room they still lacked the communication. She was begging to realize that it didn't matter how many letters Edward might send her, or how many phone calls she got, if they didn't talk about what really mattered then they were just filling in blank space.

She had already missed so much with Edward, and she didn't want to play in blank spaces with him now.

She nodded to herself, her mind set and her goal locked.

She was going to march her happy ass back to the hotel and talk to him—like an adult. And then maybe she could do that other adult thing that Garfiel had told her about. She tapped her chin in confusion, now what was it called…Oh yeah make up s—

"Hey, you."

Winry looked up in confusion, her cheeks a red hue at being caught in a very lewd thought. She pointed to herself with the finger on her chin, her eyes widening.

"Eh, me?" she asked innocently, looking behind her to see if maybe he was talking to someone else.

"Yeah you, what are ya'? Dumb or someth'en?" he asked her rudely, his voice carrying easily over the falling rain and groaning pipes.

Instantly her happy demur diminished, a spark igniting in the rain.

Huh, so big boy wanted to play with the pissy mechanic did he?

She took a moment to study him. He stood at least at six foot five with tattoos running along his arms and continuing up and under his sleeves. He rested most of his bulking weight on his right leg, his hands balled up on his waist. His hands, she noted, were heavily scared. That always alluded to fights—and she wasn't stupid, this man was trying to do just that with her. Unfortunately for him she would not be taken out so easily, and not by the likes of someone like him. She'd seen opossums scarier than him.

She scanned her eyes quickly around her surroundings and a small bundle of nervousness bloomed in her stomach. It seemed that after all her angry and aimless walking she had ended up in an area that she wasn't familiar with. She admitted to herself that she really didn't know the area of the West at all.

Well now that was stupid.

Winry brought her hand to her face and slid it across her damp forehead.

Damn Edward for being right. She would never hear the end of it now, and that was totally not what she was just turning around to do! She had to talk to him and make sure that they were on the same level and then some big ass douche bag comes out of nowhere to pick a fight with the tiny five seven girl he thinks he might get to give him something.

She wasn't going to stick around either to figure out just what that something was.

She'd fringe innocence first and see where he was going to go with this.

Winry held her hands out in surrender, smiling a small smile at him. "I'm sorry, no I'm not dumb. You just caught me off guard." she told him pleasantly, watching with a keen eye a he scoffed under his breath, a small smirk forming on his chapped lips.

Men were too predictable in her opinion. Especially the stupid ones.

This one was in for a world of pain when she was done with him.

"You lost, girl?" he called over to Winry, his smirk causing a dirty feeling to wash over her. Gross, she was going to have to scold herself in the shower now when she got back to the hotel.

"Why yes sir, I am. Can you please point me in the direction of Main Street?" she asked him in her dumbly happy voice. She wasn't stupid enough to ask this guy if he knew where her hotel was, then he'd know where she was staying. And that was not happening; she wasn't going to set herself up for that kind of failure. She could just see it now, him and his buddies ransacking the entire place

Nope, her time at Rush Valley had taught her better.

"Main Street yah say?" he laughed viciously to himself and she had to suppress an eye roll. They all thought that they were so freaking big and bad, really now, first rule is to never underestimate your opponent—usually that's why you lose. She wasn't going to be the one to break that news to him though. "You're pretty far from Main Street girly!" he yelled at her after he had finished his crackling.

"Oh I am?" Winry asked, "Well, if you could be so kind as to point me in the direction of it then I'd greatly appreciate it."

In all actuality she doubted that he would tell her, though it was worth a try. The most that she was expecting from him was a—

"And what do I get out of it if I tell yah?" he asked her with a raise of his eyebrows.

She could write a book she was so good. She rolled her eyes at his antics. At this point it was usually the part that she started to get really sick of them. If she continued to let him talk to her like this then he'd start getting violent with his tongue and saying things to her that she really didn't want to hear him say. A crass mouth from a disgusting male made her feel violated in its own since. He would show her respect when he talked to her or she would end him.

Truly, it was that simple.

"Look," she started, "I don't want to play your games. I'm tired, I'm wet, and I'm ready to go back to my hotel. So if you'd be so kind as to tell me where Main Street is then I will gladly be on my way." she told him firmly, locking her eyes with him and showing him that she was not afraid of him and would neither back down.

He took a step towards her, the menace flowing from his body in a violent wave. "You better watch your fuck'en mouth when you're talk'en to me little girl." he seethed to her, dropping his hands to his side and balling them into tight fists, the tendons and scars stretching taunt across his knuckles.

Please, he wasn't going to scare her into submission.

"Look here you!" she yelled at him, a fire burning in her eyes. "You approached _me_ to talk to me like I'm an idiot and then don't like it when I want to leave? I don't think so. You better check yourself, before you wreck yourself." she took a step back, pulling her hand behind her and gripping the spare wrench she kept with her at all times. Hey, you never know when something needed to be fixed or broke, and in this case it looked like broke was the way to go.

It also looked like big guy here wanted to beat her up. Now, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If he wanted to fight her then it'd be best if he tried to make the first move. When he did that then she could figure out how he fought and where his weaknesses were. All he had to do was fall for her goading, and it didn't seem like in this case it was going to take much.

"Wha'd you just say to me you little bitch?" he growled out at her, taking another step towards her.

"I said _fuck off_!" Winry yelled back, knowing he was going to attack her then.

And he did.

Big Boy reeled back, his fists clenched and promising pain if it connected with her. He'd already made one mistake though.

With her adrenalin pumping it seemed like time itself was slowing and she immediately noticed how he was planning to punch her. He brought his arm out and his fist to his side, preparing to launch it. That itself was mistake. He was decreasing the strength in his punch, slowing it down tenfold, _and_ leaving his side open all in one swing. He wasn't going to win that way, and she would take full advantage of it.

His fist flew through the air and she ducked just as it neared her face, feeling the wind rush over her head. Her hand grasping her wrench behind her back tightened and pulled forward, smacking the man under his jaw. She knew he would be out with that one swing.

She heard his teeth clench shut and a grunted moan of pain strangle its way out of his throat as he stumbled back from the blow; his eyes unfocused on the sky above him as everything went dark and the concrete quickly came rushing forward to kiss his face.

Winry stood still for a moment, her body taunt and ready to spring again if he moved from the ground.

He didn't.

Her body began shaking in tiny tremors as her adrenalin wore off.

"Why bravo!" A voice accompanied with clapping called from behind her. She whirled around, her wrench clenched threateningly in front of her and her chest heaving in quick breaths as her adrenalin spiked up again.

A man stood before her lazily, his body leaning against the building wall behind him. He looked cleaner than the other man, his hair neat and tucked behind his ears, the typical gang related tattoos his partner had missing on his body. His clothes were clean and dry too, a far cry from her own. His cold blue eyes starred her down, assessing her in a dangerous way. He was a moderate height, nothing like the man before him, and he was lean, not overly beefed out. He stood in a long coat with the sleeved rolled half way up his arms, which were crossed now loosely across his chest.

The element of surprise was no longer in her control and that could be a bad thing.

"What's a pretty little thing like you doing so far off the beaten path?" he asked her smoothly, cocking an eye brow in curiosity as he stared her down, his eyes rolling over her from head to foot.

Winry took a step back, suddenly very self-conscious in front of this man. She looked at her right foot where the beast man was still lying in a puddle of water, taking his sweet nap. That at least was in her favor. If she hadn't knocked him out hard enough and he came to then she'd be screwed. There was no way that she could fight two against one. Especially if one was the size of a small house. It was a pure stroke of luck and perfect timing that she'd managed to knock him out cold. If he came to she seriously doubted that he'd let her get another punch in like that.

She looked back up at the stranger playing her like a fool.

She was done dealing with this now. She wanted to be back in her hotel with Edward, she wanted to talk to him like an adult, and she wanted everything to be ok.

Alright, right now, with him not even here, she admitted she was wrong.

Now all she had to do was get out of this situation and go find him to tell him just that.

"What do you want?" she asked the new stranger, refusing to play around with him like she had the last guy. He had seen what she was working with and that could be a bad thing. She couldn't count that he would underestimate her and that left only her strength to fight him off. As much as she liked to think that she was strong she wasn't willing enough to bet that she was stronger than him.

She worked on machines, he probably beat things up for a living, and those odds were already stacking against her.

Well she'd already used her fight instinct. She guessed it was time to use the flight part.

"What makes you think that I want anything?" he asked her calmly, the smile never slipping from his face. "Here I am, minding my own business only to run into a scene I had never expected, a small slip of a girl knocking out one of my men. Now, why would I let you just leave after seeing that. Retribution must be made." he told her calmly, kicking himself away from the wall and standing at his full height.

"Look, your buddy had it coming!" she yelled at the man, taking a step back as he took one towards her. "He just came and picked a fight with me. What's the big deal with you guys? Why don't you go pick a fight with someone your own size?" she said wearily, wondering how no one had once walked past this scene and attempted to call someone—anyone! Where there no people in this freaking city?

He smirked at her, "Why darling I'd say you're _just_ my size."

Winry flinched back like she had been slapped. Uh,_ Ew! _This was just what she hated the most.

She mentally swore to herself that if she made it out of here alive then she was going to apologize to Edward…and then she'd demand that he go with her everywhere.

The thought of him made her heart beat faster. If anything happened to her then Edward would freak. She didn't want anything to happen to her. She wanted to be his happily ever after—she didn't want to cause him the kind of pain he'd been dealt since birth. Suddenly the whole argument that morning seemed petty. It also seemed to be biting her in the ass.

She'd make it out of this unscathed, she had to.

Her eyes suddenly widened as she looked over the man's shoulder at the wide street. This was her only moment. She couldn't waist this.

"Run away, go get help! Hurry!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, throwing her arms out in a swooshing motion.

"What the-!" The man quickly twirled around to see who she was yelling at and was met with an empty street. He turned back to Winry, his brows drawn down in confusion, only to be met with the sight of her pony tail as she darted down the street and around the building.

"You little bitch! Get back here!"

Winry ran.

She ran like the fires of hell were hot on her heal.

She thought back to when he turned to look back at the person who wasn't there and it brought a small giddy laugh from her throat. When she had first thought of the plan she wasn't too sure if he would fall for her. From his speech patterns and how he knew to properly construct forming sentences she figured he was of a little higher education. Alas though, it seemed that even the most elementary of tricks spiced with the perfect zest of acting could outwit even the smartest of people. Or of criminals in this case.

She heard his outraged yell echo through the empty streets and again she wondered briefly where the heck all the towns' people were.

She knew that he was going to chase her. That much was obvious by how easily she had out done him. He would want his revenge and he would chase her to the end of the earth if he had to. She now only had a very short amount of time to figure out how to outmaneuver him again.

Her feet splashed loudly on the ground below her, the water reaching up and soaking her pants. Her shoes were already thoroughly drenched and her feet seemed to squash uncomfortably with each pass of her foot on the concrete. A matching, though frighteningly faster, set of splashes matched her own and Winry knew that she only have a few more moments of figuring out what to do before he outran her and took her down with him.

A burst of panic made her pick her feet up faster, and she ducked quickly through a street corner.

It scared her that she didn't know where she was going. She didn't know if she were closer or further from the hotel and she feared that with each step further that she took from Edward she was further from saving herself. It was time to admit to even herself, that if she didn't get some help, and soon, then she was going to be hurt badly.

Or worse.

Just when she had thought she was going to be able to outrun him she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She let out a surprised yelp as she was drug back from her ponytail violently into arms that clamped around her like steal.

She breathed in deeply and let out the loudest, gut wrenching scream that she possibly could, hoping that someone, somewhere, would hear her, and at the very _least_ call the authorities.

"You little bitch!" she heard him growl next to her ear, his gasping pants brushing her neck and instilling a deep terror.

"Let me go!" she yelled loudly, thrashing her body in every way she could imagine.

With each push, pull, and twist she made he clamped his arms tighter around her, causing the air to squeeze out of her already deprived lungs. Tears began to blur her vision as he continued to hold his vice grip on her.

"What is it? You thought you could just fuck one of my guys up and think I'd let you get away?" he yelled at her angrily, trying to keep her thrashing form contained in his arm. Winry screamed loudly again and bent over as far as she could, grasping his jacket in her teeth and crunching down, knowing that she had hooked on skin from his pained hiss.

"Fucking _bitch_!" he hissed out as he loosened his grip on her slightly. She wasted not a moment in hesitation and seized the opportunity, reeling back and kicking him as hard as she could from her vantage in the knee. He dropped one arm from around her and cursed loudly. Winry attempted to take off again, her only thought solely fixed on getting the hell out of there.

"I don't think so!" he yelled at her, clamping his other arm around her tightly and throwing her to the ground.

It was like she was in slow motion as her back hit the floor. And she knew, she knew in that moment with a certain clarity that it was over.

The worst place to be in a struggle was on your back, and she had been brought down to the point of defeat. It would take an act of God to free her now, and realistically she had never been a very religious person.

The world suddenly seemed to have the play button pressed for the next thing she registered were large hands placed contrastingly around her throat. Her eyes widened and her legs thrashed out, though she knew she could do nothing. Her abuser sat above her with his once neat hair falling raggedly into his eyes as his shoulders and elbows locked, helping to keep the hands wrapped around her windpipe strong and deadly.

"You're dead bitch! You hear me? Dead!" he grunted above her, the rain soaking the both of them and falling into her gasping mouth, doing little to aid the attack. She clawed desperately at his arms, leaving hot red trails across the exposed skin, though doing nothing else.

Her world began splotching in patches of black and she began struggling more desperately.

She didn't want to die.

Not here, not now, and certainly not by this man's hands.

A heavy feeling beat through her veins at a slow pace and her struggling slowly become more difficult as her focus faded. Her hands grasped lightly at the ones constricting her air way in a last ditch attempt to free herself and she knew she had lost. Her feet sluggishly stopped kicking out and her hands rolled off the ones strangling her. Her head lolled back and her eyes rolled shut.

She thought she heard Edward scream before the world suddenly faded into an endless black.

**OoOoOo**

So warm.

That was the first thing that she noticed.

Where she thought was supposed to be cold she was instead warm. Like a lovers caress she was comfortably warm. She heard a deep rumble followed by a lighter, much softer one, though what it was she was not sure. The exchange happened again and slowly she realized it was people talking.

She wasn't dead.

Reality began setting in and for the first time she noticed the pain in her throat and around her neck. Each breath was difficult and ragged, even to her own ears it sounded as painful as it was. She moaned softly, tears springing to her closed eyes as a sharp reverberation ripped through her esophagus. She had studied plenty of medical books and knew too much about the human body to know that talking would be virtually impossible for the next few weeks.

A warm hand slipped over her colder one, the thumb rolling over her scratched knuckles.

Odd, she didn't remember scratching her knuckles.

Slowly she opened her eyes, the very concerned eyes of Edward starring right back at her. Small tears leaked from the corner of her lashes and rolled down the side of her face at the look of desperate defeat in his eyes.

"Hey," he said softly, bringing his other thumb up and rolling it across the tears path, whipping away the offending liquid. "Don't cry its ok." He told her quietly, though his eyes betrayed his easy words.

Someone clearing their throat pulled Edwards attention away to the woman in a white coat standing close to the open door of her room. "Like I said sir, she'll be sore for a couple of weeks, but other than that will be completely fine." She smiled a soft smile and looked over at Winry. "Dear, if you need anything, or think anything might be wrong, then don't hesitate to come see us. You're lucky enough as it is that your friend here heard you and got to you in time. That gang isn't known to be easy to handle." She told her slowly, sympathy in her voice at the prospect of everything that Winry had gone through.

Winry nodded softly, trying to keep the wince of pain from her face at the motion.

The ever watching of Edward, however, had noticed and was immediately on her.

"If you need any medication or anything just tell me, the doctors leaving some for you." He told her softly as the doctor nodded behind him and left from the door way quietly.

Winry turned her eyes to Edward, watching as he dutifully checked the medication by her bedside and turned to her before tucking the sheets a little tighter around her. She felt another bout of tears well in her eyes.

She had been so close.

She had come so close to losing it all. To missing out on this, on this new life with him. All because she had acting like a child and didn't want his concern. All because he was trying to keep her safe. Because he didn't want to see what had happened to her happen to her.

And she had almost lost it all because she had acting like the child she thought he was accusing her of being.

But sitting here, right now like this with him, she realized something crucially important in their relationship.

He wasn't treating her like a child. He wasn't even treating her like a kitten or an idiot that always ran into poles.

He was treating her like someone that he loved. Like someone who he cared about, and like someone he would dedicate the rest of his equivalent exchange life with. He was treating her like she was something important to him and she had spit in his face for it.

The tears she had been trying to hold in spilled down her face as Edward look up, his eyes crinkling in distress. "Hey, I said no crying." he told her, reaching over again and whipping them away.

Winry reached out and clasped his wrist in her hand, holding his hand to her face and mournfully looking into his eyes.

"I'm so sorry." she weakly rasped out, her voice so silent she wondered if Edward had even understood what she said.

"Shh." He told her softly, taking her hand from his wrist and tucking it between his own. "It's ok, I should have known better than to doubt you. I was just concerned."

A sob ripped from her throat and he looked alarmed as more tears flew unabashed down her face. "Winry, please stop crying, I'm really sorry." he told her quickly, standing from his chair to get even closer to her, distressed that his apology had caused her more pain. It was supposed to make things better!

"I'm so, so sorry Edward." she again rasped out, her voice cracking and nonexistent through her bruised throat.

Edward smiled softly at her, running his fingers through her blonde bangs. "Okay, were both sorry, now stop crying you gear head." he said lightly, watching finally as a little blooming happiness glowed in her eyes.

Winry motioned for him to scoot closer to her mouth so she could tell him something.

Edward looked doubtfully at her. "Winry, the doc said that you need to not talk. So please, shut up." He told her, watching as she impatiently motioned for him to bend lower, a small smile forming on her lips.

He eyed her wearily. "This is the last thing you get to say." He told her firmly, waiting for her nod of acknowledgment.

She nodded and he leaned towards her, his ear close to her lips.

And there in that moment she told him what she had wanted to tell him her whole life. It was nothing like she expected and nothing like she had dreamed in all the dreams that she had ever imagined, but it was them. It was her, it was him, and it was perfect.

With her lips inches from his ear and his hand supporting him above her head with his other grasped lightly in her own she murmured out what she should have told him ages ago.

And when he returned it she knew everything would be okay.

**OoOoOo**

**Wowzer, so this one was loooong, and if it weren't for my super awesome beta **The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder** then this chapter would have been in super bad pandemonium chaos disorder! Hehehe, made a funny! Shhhhhh! No but really, she's awesome, leave some lov'en! **

**I'm going to challenge myself and attempt to make all my chapters this long from now on—wish me luck! **

**And a thank you to Ms. Purple Dragon Lover for the love! ^_^**


	9. 9 Edward the Jealous?

**Disclaimer:**_**Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say. **_

_A series of drabbles, enjoy! _

_And a huge Thank You to my new Beta_** The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder!**

**Chapter Nine: Edward the Jealous? **

**OoOoOo**

Edward trailed his finger down and along a smooth slope, a small smile resting on his face. The morning sun streamed through his parted shades, casting a soft shadow over the woman sleeping peacefully beside him. He watched as she rolled her shoulder slightly forward from his touch, a soft sigh escaping her lips.

His head rested on his open palm, his other hand playing across the bare flesh of Winry's body. It was a rare thing for him to wake up before her, and these days he liked to just stay awake and enjoy it. He knew that as soon as she had woken up completely from her slumber then it would be strait to work down in the basement with little to no sight of her till the sun was again setting.

Recently Winry obtained a new patient who had lost an arm and she had bunkered down with an abundant rush of dedication to please him.

If he were a jealous man he would be seeing green.

As it was he had a sneaking suspicion that seeing the young man reminded her of the days when his arm and leg were gone, so silently he vowed to let her do her thing without him hovering over her shoulder.

On that same note however, he had also deemed times before work his, and his, alone. No prepubescent teens would be in this bedroom, and he would see to that.

With a smirk he took the top of the bed sheet and slowly pulled it from her sleeping body. Instantly she shivered from the morning chill, wrapping her arms tightly around her body and rolling back into his, seeking out his warmth. He pulled her closer to him, placing his face into the curve of her neck and lightly putting a morning kiss there.

He felt her shiver against him and knew she was smiling and awake. Their morning ritual was something that was still undisturbed between them and he loved that it continued to bring that warm fuzz to his insides.

"Well good morning to you." A soft voice said followed by an even softer giggle. He growled playfully into her neck, rolling on top of her quickly and placing himself comfortably into the grooves she had that seemed to be made especially for him.

His answer was an even happier giggle.

He continued to place small kisses along the column of her throat, trying to distract her from what he knew she was about to do. As sure as the sun rose that day, she looked over to the bed side, seeing the time and sighing deeply.

"Edward, I have to get up." she told him gently, nudging him in the shoulder.

He growled again into her throat, though this one holding a little more frustration in it.

"When is the twerp coming by today?" he asked her, distracting her by kissing the underside of her jaw, his stubble causing goosebumps to race across her body.

"Uh," Winry said, her eyes slipping close and toes curling as she tried to remember when her next patient was coming in that day. It was a big day after all. She was supposed to be doing the initial instillation and that was a large step in automail prosthetics. The room down the hall that she used as a patient room had been set up the night before and all that was needed now was the new patient and the automail. It was always the trickiest part of having automail so he would be staying with them for about three days until he was clear with no signs of infection or automail rejection. All she had to do that day was wait for him one o'clock arrival and do some last minute tweaks to the future port and arm.

That left very little bed time for now, however, and she knew that she would have to get out of the room soon, so she could return sooner.

"At one," she told Edward slowly, her hands on his shoulder becoming more persistent for her release.

"Then we can enjoy a little more time to ourselves." he whispered huskily into her ear, taking the lobe into his mouth.

Winry wrenched her head away quickly, her eyes closed tightly. "Edward, really, I have to get up. There's still a lot that I have to get done until I can be ready for the operation."

She knew that he had given in as his weight fell more heavily onto her body.

"Win, I really hope that you finish with this brat soon, because I really don't enjoy this right now." he said tightly with a small nudge against her leg.

Winry blushed hotly and pushed him off her, jumping out of the bed and running into the adjoining bathroom, slamming the door loudly.

Edward huffed to himself; watching the closed door with a scowl and hearing the water turn on. With a roll of his eyes he groaned softly and fell back into the bed, burrowing his face in the pillow that still smelled like her and dozing off lightly.

**OoOoOo**

Giggling was what had woken him up.

With a groan he rolled onto his side, looking up at the clock that read one thirty three.

Another giggle from the room down the hall had his brows furrowing. With a deep sigh Edward pushed himself up and out of the bed, walking out of the room and towards the sound he knew Winry made. The floorboards creaked under his weight as well as the uneven pitter patter his metal limb made against the grain, while he went out in search of the missing woman. Lazily he scratched his chest, not caring in the slightest that he was nude from the waist up.

It was his house too dammit, and he might not be jealous of the little shit, but he wasn't going to sit by and not let him know just who he was going up against.

He slowed his pace as he approached the opened door, listening to the chatter that was going on inside the room.

"My friends are jealous of me."

"Well, there's nothing to be jealous about a missing limb." Winry's voice was soft, though a hint of reprimand lined the tone.

"Oh no, not about that."

Silence met his statement.

"You know, they think it's awesome that I get to spend three days alone with my gorgeous mechanic."

A tick started in Edwards's temple. So the little shit thought he had swagger did he?

He heard Winry giggle from inside the room, the same giggle that he heard earlier. It seemed as if her newest patient was a little flirt, which Edward was fine with, though that would not be happening under his roof.

"So, is it just you who lives here? This place is awfully big for one person." he heard the punk ass ask.

It was now time to intervene.

"No I live here with my—"

"Yo." Edward interrupted, leaning his tall, broad body against the door frame and startling the two in the room.

Winry jumped and turned towards Edward, the tool in her hand slipping and clattering loudly against the floor.

"Edward!" she shouted, putting a hand against her racing heart.

"Who are you?" Edward heard. With malice he roamed his eyes against the teenager perched on the bed he would shortly be passed out on. He stood tall—as far as Edward could tell from his sitting—for a teen his age, with a head of shaggy black hair, his brown eyes staring challenging back at Edward.

"Her Edward." he declared cockily, raising an eye brow in challenge and seeing a spark of defiance light back at him.

So it was a challenge he wanted?

Unfortunately for the kid he had never met an Elric, and especially not an Edward Elric. He was in for a sore surprise.

"Edward!" Winry yelled in protest, standing from her stool and stomping towards him. "Can you leave? What the hell are you doing? I don't need you putting any added stress on my patient." she told him as she pushed him out the door. "I'm about to go into surgery! Really, please don't do this now!"

Edward scoffed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her out of the room with him.

"Look Win," he told her as he pulled her down the hallway and away from the enemy, "I don't like that kid."

Winry rolled her eyes at him, twisting her wrist out of his grasp and folding her arms across her chest. "That doesn't surprise me," she told him with a huff. "And his name is Hersh, not punk ass, kid, twerp, or anything else you can think of calling him."

He scowled at her. "How long is he going to be here?"

"Until his automail is in the okay, so about three days if all goes right." Winry told him, her eyes softening as she saw the flicker of jealousy she knew Edward was too proud to admit he was harnessing.

"Punk ass." she heard him mumbled under his breath. Rolling her eyes she reached out and slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Chill out." she said softly, turning and making her way back to the patient waiting eagerly for her. She wasn't stupid by any means. She had been a mechanic for far too long to know when her patients were getting fresh with her. With her newest patient's age and looks she knew immediately that he was going to be a flirt. It didn't hurt anything, and he was far from offensive with her, so she had yet to see a reason to shut him down. Now that he was going to be spending three days in her house though, she knew she was going to have to put down some ground rules.

"Sorry about that." she told Hersh as she rounded the corner of the room. A tug from her wrist had her squealing loudly and she quickly felt her body yanked into a harder, larger one. Her eyes stared shocked and wide at Edward even as he grasped the back of her head, bringing her mouth against his roughly and holding her firmly against his body. His hand threaded into her hair as he nibbled on her lower lip, trapping her in a passionate kiss and roughly releasing her with a smirk and loud smack. Her eyes stared blurred into his golden orbs, seeing the smug smile on his own face.

"Have fun." he told her before releasing her and walking away.

Winry stumbled from his sudden release and watched as he walked away.

That was new.

A clearing voice brought her back to her surroundings and she cranked her head to the side, blushing hotly as Hersh stared back at her blankly.

"Uh, sorry about that, let's go ahead and get started on the automail." she told him bashfully, her cheeks a rosy red.

**OoOoOo**

"How are you feeling?" Winry asked as she monitored her patient coming out of his surgery, his eyes confused and tight beads of perspiration forming on his brow.

"Is it done?" he asked quietly, pain harshly racking through his body.

"Yeah, though you could say the healing part is the worse, you're not out of the woods yet." she told him honestly, knowing that it would do little good to lie to the boy.

He closed his eyes, knotting his brown in an attempt to keep from crying out. Winry ran a wet cloth along his forehead, checking his temperature and sighing in relief that so far, everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Now she only hoped it would stay that way for the next three days.

She didn't want any type of pissing match be to going on in her house.

She waited until Hersh had slipped into unconsciousness before placing a glass of water by his bedside and slipping out of the room. The sun had long since set on the horizon and she felt exhaustion creep in her bones, weighing heavily on her shoulders and making her drag her feet longer and longer as she made her way to her bedroom.

At the thought of her bed she smiled. All she wanted right now was a hot bath to decompress her stress and a warm bed.

She smiled softly as she thought of that warm bed.

Though she knew Edward would never want to hear it, she loved curling around him and using him as her own personal teddy bear on days like these.

She opened the door to her room quickly, noticing the shower running in the bathroom and sighing sadly to herself. She would have to wait for Edward to get out of his shower, and she could only hope that she had caught the end of it. That man liked to boil his flesh off till the hot water ran cold and she would then have to wait even longer for a lukewarm shower.

With a huff she plopped down on the bed and kicked her shoes off, feeling her eyes grow heavy as sleep threatened to consume her. With the lulling white noise from the shower and the strenuous exhaustion plaguing her body Winry felt her eyes drop. She told herself it would only be for a second.

Her second must have been longer than that though, as she was nudged awake from a warm, and very wet body.

"Mmmh, Edward, stop." she mumbled sleepily, pushing away lightly at the arm wrapping its way around her back. The bed disappeared from underneath her quickly and Winry's eyes shot open. Edward smirked from his point, his eyes gleaming in a deep mirth she knew all too well.

"Don't you do it." she told her dangerously as the tile from the bathroom came into her vision.

"But Win, you're all dirty." he said with a satisfied smirk. Winry twisted as hard as she could in his unyielding hold as he stepped into the bathtub, her voice shrieking an octave as she saw him reaching towards the shower knob.

"Edward Elric!"

He laughed as water drenched her clothes and as her mouth popped open in silent outrage. After a moment for the completed affect, Edward put Winry's stiff body down, making sure her feet were firm on the floor before he released her completely.

Hateful, angry eyes stared back into his playful own, her fire setting his own spark off.

Edward captured Winry's body to his own, sliding a hand down the thigh of her soaked jeans.

"Now why don't we get you out of these wet clothes?" he asked against her neck, pleased as her anger quickly dissolved and a laugh bubbled out.

It was good to keep her gears greased too; she couldn't go and get too stiff on him now.

**OoOoOo**

**Day 1**

**OoOoOo**

Already Edward was finished with this kid.

It was one thing to be woken up at seven in the morning on his weekend, and another thing to be woken up out of his post coma blissfulness from last night to get up for a sore and whinny brat.

Ever since then Winry had been tending to him hand and foot.

And that brat was using it good.

"Ms. Winry," he heard the shit mutter from the other room.

"Yes Hersh?"

"I'm really thirsty." he croaked out.

Edward peaked his head around the corner and watched as Hersh motioned towards the tall glass of water sitting beside him with a bendy straw poked through it. Winry smiled at the brat and reached over him to grab the cup and bring it to him.

Edward felt a tick form in his eye as he watched the heathen gape blatantly at her breast while she tried to help him.

Hurt or not, he was going to put that kid in another hospital if he wasn't careful. And he wouldn't send him with a note; it would be with an additional missing limb.

He watched as Hersh moved his eyes down Winry's body, lustfully pulling them back up to her face.

"Winry, you're very beautiful." he told her softly with a dopey smile. Winry blushed and Edward saw red. He pushed against the wall and walked into the room, ignoring Winry as she immediately glared pointedly at him.

"Hey Hersh." he said quickly, walking his way over to the bed side of the bitch.

Hersh stared blankly at him, his eyes noting the challenge.

A timer in the kitchen went off and Edward smiled at Winry.

"Hey Win, wanna go get that for me, I can watch over Hersh while you do that." he said innocently.

Winry barked out a laugh and stood firm, placing her hands on her hips while she arched a brow at him.

"Really Ed, how dumb do you think I am?"

Edward cocked his head to the side, looking as innocent as he could at her. Though he knew she probably wasn't buying it she still rolled her eyes at him and turned on her heal, making her way into the kitchen to silence the alarm.

Edward quickly decided that only left him with a few short moments with Hersh here.

He reached over to the table that Winry had put the glass down on and grabbed the cup, throwing the bend straw away.

"So you're thirsty?" he asked the kid with a raise of his eyebrow.

Hersh stared defiantly back at him.

"Terribly so." he said dryly.

"Well now, why don't I help you with that?" Edward said. He grabbed him from around his fresh shoulder, watching as Hersh bit down on his lip to keep a groan of pain from escaping. He hauled him into a sitting position, darkly amused as sweat began to bead on his brow.

"Oh my, are you hot?" he asked him innocently.

Hersh glared back at him, his temper rising to match Edwards.

"She should be with someone who treats her right." Hersh told him pointedly.

Edward leaned closer to the teens face, his eyes burning. "Don't pretend like you know me, or like you know her, because kid, if you're not careful then I'm going to shut your ass down. You might think that you're hot shit but it'd be wise to remember that at the end of the day, it's _my _bed that she comes home to." he brought the glass of water to Hersh's lips. "Now drink."

He didn't wait for the kid to open his mouth fully as he tipped the glass. Hersh pulled back harshly, sputtering water and gasping as it ran all down his front.

"Oh dang. A slip of the hand." Edward mused, his ears perking as he heard Winry making her way back from the kitchen. "Let me go get you a towel invalid."

He stood and walked to a small cabinet in the room, grabbing a soft towel and chunking it at him.

"Clean yourself up." he told him shortly as he walked out of the room, ignoring Winry as he passed her in the hallway, her eyebrow raised in question towards him.

This was going to be a long three days.

**OoOoOo**

**Day 2**

**OoOoOo**

"Well it looks like the port is healing very well. Everything is clean and there's a little inflammation, but nothing that's worrisome." Winry said happily as she inspected the fresh port connected to Hersh's body. He was healing surprisingly fast and it was good to see that she had successfully helped another person in their road to normality.

"That's good Winry; I don't think any other mechanic could have made it as clean as you did." he said with a goofy smile.

Winry giggled softly. He had lessened in his attempts to swoon her, but she was not stupid, she noticed the looks he sent her way when he thought she wasn't looking. At first she had chalked it up to him being so high on the morphine, but now she was pretty sure he was just being a leech.

A leach that was seriously ticking Edward off too.

She brought a finger up to her temple, rubbing it softly as a headache fired up.

The testosterone raging between the two of them was getting on her last nerves.

"Are you okay Winry?"

She smiled at the man, "Yes, Hersh, I'm fine. Thank you."

Reaching over she grabbed a fresh roll of gauze and began to rewrap his shoulder.

"The only bad news that I do have for you today is that I'm going to be weaning you off the morphine. Everything's healing nicely and you don't appear to be in any severe pain so once the morphine's all out of your system I'll just get you some over the counter pain medication." she told him professionally.

After a moment of not receiving any type of verbal acknowledgement Winry looked down at Hersh. He stared blankly at her chest pressed accidently against his arm as she reached around his body with the gauze.

She pulled back quickly. "Hersh."

He looked up quickly, guilt in his eyes.

"Did you hear what I said?" she asked him sternly.

He looked away quickly, a light hue of red staining his cheeks.

Slowly he turned his head back to Winry.

Shock raced through his body and his mouth popped open as his eyes widened.

Two large, very distinctively male, hands covered Winry's chest. He looked up quickly and saw shocked horror in one set of eyes while another glared hatefully at him with an uncanny amount of fire.

"These are _mine._" Edward snarled out, cupping Winry's chest harder and pulling her back firmly against his chest.

Hersh stared, mouth gaping, as Edward continued holding the woman in such a way, his claim clear as day.

_Piss off. _

Winry yelled, her voice carrying loudly through the house as she flailed out, grabbing the closes thing available to her.

Her fingers wrapped tightly around her wrench and she pulled back, whacking Edward on the back of the head with it blindly, her face red hot with embarrassment.

Edward released her suddenly, taking a step back and cradling a forming bump on his head.

"Ow! Bitch! What the hell was that for?" he demanded angrily.

"What do you mean '_what the hell was that for?'_ Are you stupid? What the hell is _wrong _with you?" she yelled quickly, her eyes sparked and cheeks red.

"That punk ass bitch is what's wrong with me!" Edward yelled, pointing at the teen that had made himself as small as possible at the outrageous display of anger.

This was ridiculous.

"He didn't even do anything!" Winry yelled back, pointing her wrench at Edward. "It was _you _who just molested me in front of my patients!"

Edward huffed angrily. "Man, fuck this!" he yelled and pointed at Hersh, "fuck you!"

With a stomp he made his way out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Uhh," Hersh started.

Winry whipped around, pointing her wrench dangerously at him, "Don't you say a single word."

Hersh shrunk further into the bed, nodding his head quickly and smiling nervously.

That wasn't really the display of fireworks that he was imagining.

**OoOoOo**

**Day 3**

**OoOoOo**

It was quiet.

An eerie quiet.

Ever since the previous day when Edward and Winry had yelled it had been a tense quiet in the house.

Hersh quietly ate his meal, peaking looks at his melancholy mechanic from time to time. She worked quietly and with a certain type of reserve he hadn't ever seen from her.

"Winry?" he asked her slowly, sitting up in the bed and watching as she slowly turned her head towards him, though she didn't look at him.

At the moment she was tightening and loosening screws and wires in the arm that would belong to him for the rest of his life.

"Why are you with someone who makes you so sad all the time?"

Silence met his question and she slowly stopped tightening the screw she was working on.

"Hersh." she started, "I don't mean to sound like a bitch when I say this, but you don't know me, and you don't know Edward. He doesn't make me sad all the time. Most of the time we're happy but just the fact that we can get angry at each other should be a good thing. It means that we still care." she looked away from the mechanical arm to stare back at the younger man. "And him just being here with me makes me happier than you'll ever understand." She looked down and smiled softly at her hands as she intertwined her fingers. "I think it makes me happier than even _he'll_ understand."

Hersh looked away from the woman, feeling a twinge of disappointment and rejection.

He shrugged his shoulders light heartedly with a cheeky smile.

"Guess I'll just have to give you over to the old man." he said lightly, raising his one good arm and placing it behind his head. "So, Ms. Mechanic, when can I get my new arm installed, I need to get out of this room."

Winry smiled happily at the boy and raised the arm she was tweaking.

"If all goes as planned then I can have you out and with a new limb hopefully by the end of the week." she said happily, her mood boosting now that at least one of the boys in the house understood where she stood.

The only one that would be giving her problems at this point would be Edward.

And she had a feeling that she might have to use her softer side in order to persuade him or who she stood with.

Winry looked down again quickly with a small smile and a light blush.

Pun was totally intended.

She set the arm back down and reached for her oil can, shaking it and feeling the hallow mass.

"Crap," she muttered to herself. "Hey Hersh, I'm going to run down to my workshop and get some more oil, I'll be right back."

Hersh nodded and watched as she walked out the room, smiling to himself and letting out a deep breath when she turned the corner.

"Well that sucks." he murmured to himself, laying back and starring at the window letting in bright rays of sunshine.

"Yeah, but I told you from the start."

Hersh jumped up quickly, placing his hand to his racing heart.

"Dude! What the fuck man! How do you do that?" He demanded to the smug alchemist.

"Years of practice." Edward supplied back, setting himself down on the chair perched where Winry had been sitting.

A heavy silence fell between the two and slowly Hersh relaxed back down into the bed, shifting his eyes bashfully to the older man.

"No hard feelings?" he asked hesitantly, a nervous chuckle seeping through.

Edward sighed heavily and slumped into the chair.

"Yeah man, no hard feelings." he smirked proudly, "Though I totally understand why you went for her. She the best all right, I was just lucky enough to meet her before someone else could sweep her off her feet." he stared pointedly at Hersh on the last park, though his smirk never wavered.

"I guess out of all the bad in life God decided to give me something good and worth knowing where my home was."

Hersh smiled at him.

"That's very corny, though I hope one day I can find a nice lady like that."

Edward shrugged and laughed at him, "Eh, who knows, maybe one day you will."

"Were you threatened by me?" Hersh asked.

Edward smiled and shook his head before he stood up.

"No. I trust her, and I know her. It's just nice to give her a hard time."

Hersh laughed loudly, grimacing mildly and placing his hand to the healing port. "Go figure."

Edward shrugged and grinned cheekily.

"Well, I'm going to get the hell out of here before Win shows back up and thinks that were some sort of chums now." He waved at Hersh and made his way to the door, "Hope your arm works for you, you have the best mechanic, but that's not all its going to take."

Hersh smiled at Edwards back.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Edward strolled out of the room and stopped as he saw Winry looking at their pictures hanging along the wall. With a small smile he walked up behind and tentatively embraced her from behind, resting his head on her shoulder and looking at the picture she was staring at.

"I'm sorry." he told her softly, pleased as he felt her relax in his embrace and cup his hands connected on her stomach.

"No you're not." she told him softly, a small giggle slipping out.

Edward laughed softly and kissed her neck, please when he received the same reaction from her he knew she would have. Winry squealed and giggled, turning her face towards him.

"You need to shave." she told him as she brought her hand to his face and rubbed against his forming grain.

"Nah." he chuckled and rubbed it against her.

Again she squealed and twisted her way out of his embrace, laughing as he stared at her with open arms.

"Oh, come on honey, don't you like my prickles?" he teased as he lunged towards her.

Winry eeped and jumped away from him, taking off down the hall with a loud giggle.

"Get away from me!"

Edward gave chase.

"But I love you!"

"And I hate your scruffy!"

He laughed.

His life couldn't get much better.

**OoOoOo**

**Soooo, not my greatest, but I need to get my groove back on dammit! Lol **

**Ahhhh, my beta, and yalls love keeps me rolling! More chapter soon! **


	10. 10 Nerves

**Disclaimer**: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

_And a huge Thank You to my Beta _**The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder!**

**Chapter Ten****: Nerves **

**OoOoOo**

There were very few moments in Winry Rockbell's life that she could say she were ever this gut wrenchingly nervous.

The first would be the day after Den had been given the automail leg. She was still but a mere child barely even seeing the peak of teenage years, but she would never forget how nervous she was as her grandmother walked out of the room, her apron splotched with blood and a grim look on her face. Den was still barely a puppy herself and it was the first forty eight hours of nail biting anxiety to see if the pup would make it through the surgery.

The second incident would be directly related to the same mechanics, so to speak. She remembered once having the same anxious nervousness as she waited for Edward to come around and out of his surgery. Sure, it was a little more intense then when Den was going through the process, but it was still the general feeling that came along with the wait.

Edward apparently made it through his ordeal, which landed her in the situation that she was in now; waiting on a train station platform for him, the unfamiliar nervous bubble in her stomach threatening her morning meal.

She did not like how he was doing these things to her. It wasn't that she wasn't ready to see him or anything.

No, it more so had to do with the unsure setting she suddenly found herself in. It was a story always told and embellished in magical smelling rose bushes of wonder...but it never told the after story of blissful-faceless-conversations leading up to the inevitable physical meeting after the awkward three months of separation.

Winry paused before biting her lip hard. I mean really, this was seriously bothering her, and on a multitude of levels. How was someone supposed to interpret this?

An unexpected proposal of the joining of two individual lives into one with a departure added five minutes later lasting over the time span of three months. Three months that consisted of more phone calls, mails, and telegrams than she _ever _received from him in one adventure, but none the less still three months of avoiding the elephant screaming in the room.

And now she was seeing him face to face again.

The same face she dreamed about on a daily basis. The same face connected to a body she helped build.

The same body she had also been dreaming about almost daily-though the intensity always was a wide variety of inexplicable colors.

The same body she imagined was next to her, soothing her, loving her, was finally going to physically be there. No more curling around her pillow in a desperate attempt to just feel like he was closer, like the elephant they never talked about was still an elephant, one she didn't dream up, and one that would one day be tagged.

Flesh, bone, blood, and a little metal, would finally be with her again.

Winry felt her chest tighten. The anxiety was crushing her.

What if after all his time away from her Edward had decided they were better off as just being friends? How would she be able to handle that?

She didn't really think she could.

So many day dreams of their future together had filtered through her mind at break neck speeds. After all that she didn't think it was plausible at this point to go back to how things once were. Her Pandora's Box had been opened and she'd be damned if she closed it any time soon.

A distant whistle brought her attention back.

Winry gulped, frowning to herself as she tried to remember when it was she ate this rock in her throat. Her eyes shifted robotically to the fellow patrons beginning to stand from their benches and make their way towards the platform. They were all smiles and bubbly excitement and she could only wonder what type of image she conjured up to them.

Winry's brow furrowed as she tried to take a step forward. Odd, her feet seemed to be stuck to the floor. They must have just been resealing the floors and she accidentally stepped on the one piece of wood they also accidentally left upside down.

Well, that was a first.

As the train approached she felt as if she was at a major mile stone in her life.

They say that there's a fork in the road, and this was her fork.

She felt like she could at this very moment just close her eyes and see the two different possibilities her life could be going.

A small sheen of sweat beaded on her brow.

This was the moment in her life that would influence the rest of her days. Right here could be the straw on the camel's back, or the elephants inevitable tagging.

The wheels screamed in their halting, the metal and metal mix ringing loudly in her ears. People smiled, their fans waving sporadically in an attempt to busy their hands, their excitement causing them to bounce on their toes.

Winry stood motionless, watching from a vantage point in the back that she had never been in. She was normally one of those people. She was normally waiting with eager expectation for Edward to step off that train and surprise her with what was going on in his life.

But this was not normal, and she already knew what was going on his life.

She knew that he was going to be stepping off that train with all his limbs attached. She knew that he was healthy. She knew that he had not been pierced, poked, or prodded by any sharp object, and yet it was different.

When she should have once been this nervous to see him she never was.

And now when she knew everything she suddenly was.

The train finally halted, and people gathered even closer, their skirts fluttering and hearts racing. Though she didn't wear a skirt her heart was certainly racing, and not to outdo anyone, but she was sure it was going a hell of a lot faster than anyone else's too.

Painstakingly slow, people finally began to debark the train, their eyes wide and happy to be reunited with the ones they loved. Happy cries were spouted, wives kissing their husbands, children hugging their grandparents. The reunion was joyful.

And all Winry could feel was a sick pit of dread.

It was now that she realized why.

Before they had grow up everything had been like this. They had always known where they were going, what they were aiming for. Edward and Alphonse had always had a plan, and even though sometimes they didn't know how to get there they always had an end.

But not now.

Now it was a mystery. Now she was no longer the naive little girl she had once been, and Edward was no longer the troubled little boy he had once been. He was a man, she was woman, and they were both growing up.

But there was no end, no goal to fight towards, and no adventure to go on.

It would just be the two of them.

Heat sparked on Winry's face as the crowd slowly parted, the families and friends leaving with their catch.

And then it happened.

He stepped off the train, his head bowed and his bag clutched lightly in his hand.

And everything stopped.

He looked up and met her eyes, his shining and a smile tucked happily on his mouth. She watched in a trance like state as his lips caressed her name, and though she was too far away to hear it she knew it was hers.

And slowly a smile broke onto her face.

She was wrong. She was so wrong. This wasn't their end. This was their beginning. There were new adventures for them to go on, and new things for them to discover.

And sure, she might not know what was supposed to happen now, or where their life would take them, but right now, looking up into his eyes, and seeing his face she realized, everything would be okay.

They would figure it out together.

Her feet were magically unglued from the floor and Winry took off. She thought she said his name, but if she were looking back on it from days, months, or years to come, she would say it was his warmth she remembered the most.

His arms opened and he took her with him, engulfing her smaller-_finally_-frame into his and suddenly everything was okay.

It would be okay to be nervous and unsure, and it would be okay to not agree with everything, and maybe to ignore that elephant who was weeping happily in the corner, but it would still be okay. As long as there was a Winry and Edward then she would make it okay.

His arms tightened.

"I missed you."

She smiled around her tears-it must have been raining on her eyes, she didn't remember crying.

"Welcome home."

**OoOoOo**

**A.N. So I know that I was going to be posting more than 4000+ chapters and all, and I still am! I wrote this on my old computer and it crashed and after much begging, pleading, and crying my friend successfully restored all my old documents from that computer and this bad boy was on it! SO! My next chapter is already 3/4 done, and will be out soon. I hope yall enjoy this chapter while you wait for my next!**

**Mucho love!**


	11. 11 The Letter

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

_And a huge Thank You to my Beta_** The Pandemonium-Chaos Disorder!**

**Chapter Ten: The Letter**

**OoOoOo**

Edward pulled his coat tighter around his body, trying to suppress a violent shiver as the wind bit through his frame.

Winter had fallen hard and fast across the West, killing all the plants violently and leaving the locals scrambling desperately for their winter gear. If he'd know it would have been this bad then he would have spent a couple extra months in Resembool.

As it was, he didn't, and he was beginning to think that Winry and Mother Nature were in collaboration together. She hadn't been too happy with him last time when he left.

He smile was wiry at the errant thought

Yes, it certainly seemed like an uncontrollable incident she would wish upon him.

Smiling at the thought of his fiery girl, he pushed away from the column he was propped on, making his way towards a shop he figured was about time he visited.

The wind howled in his ears, attacking said appendages and nose viciously. Edward winced as he began to feel a trickle in his sinus cavity.

'_Great__,_' he thought, '_I don't even think I have a handkerchief._'

Quickly he ducked into a corner of a building against the wind, patting his pockets down in a desperate attempt to find a cloth. He really didn't want to walk around with half his nose racing its way out of his face.

Though he knew he probably didn't have a handkerchief he continued to pat his pockets down, reaching eventually his coat and hastily opening it to check the inside compartments. He paused suddenly as he felt his hand crunch against something in his left breast pocket.

"What the hell?" He mumbled out loud, creeping his fingers into the pocket and pulling out a thickly folded envelope. His brow furrowed in confusion.

'_What?_' he thought, truly bewildered now. He flipped the thick envelope, confusion making him momentarily ignore the cold frost creeping into his open jacket.

It couldn't be his notes on Alkahestry—he kept all them neatly together in a brief case he'd purposefully left in his hotel room. He thought hard, trying to remember if he'd possibly picked it up somewhere or if someone had given him it.

With each scenario he drew a blank.

His finger ran along the folded crease in the paper before he folded it all the way open and flipped the mystery envelope.

His confusion further mounted as he saw his name scrawled in a clean cursive.

Okay, so someone had given him an envelope. That much was obvious. But try as he might he could not for the life of him remember ever receive any type of envelope from anyone—and with so much research he was doing and between so many people he was meeting he was still able to brag on his ability to remember it all.

And then suddenly he can't remember who had given him this letter?

That was very odd, and very unlike him.

He folded the letter back in half and tucked it away. He would have to investigate it later, right now he had a much more important matter to attend to.

He pulled his coat securely around his frame again, ducking back out into the cold wind and making his way, a small smile again on his face.

**OoOoOo**

Bells jingled happily over his head as he opened the door.

"You have a great day, sir!"

Edward looked back at the elderly woman, smiling softly and waving back to her, "You too, thank you again!" he called as he stepped back into the cold, his purchase nestled safely under his arm.

A light snow had started to fall across the planes while he was in the store, the flakes falling in a light dust softly in the heavy creases along his jacket. Though the skies were an ashen gray and the barren west was slowing falling into a deeper cold, nothing could bring his high spirits down.

Edward held his hand out at a passing cab, smiling to himself as it pulled over quickly. Hailing cabs around here was usually a chore, and yet it seemed as if everyone star was aligning, every bird was singing and even the gods were on his side.

He hopped into the parked car quickly, patting the driver on the shoulder and offering him a bright smile. "Great day isn't it?"

The driver arched a bushed eye brow at him, though a rugged smile tore from his own lips from Edward's infectious mood.

"Whatever yah say, son!" He tipped the fraying brim of his boxed cover at Edward, "Where yah headed off to on a day like today?"

Edward pointed forward at a taller building down further than he was willing to walk.

"My adventure's over for the day. I'm back off to my hotel. The big one—Brookridge please."

The driver nodded and pulled away, following the streets he probably knew as well as the local pedestrians around the local pubs. That was the one thing about the West that Edward truly loved. They were as tight nit and homey in these smaller towns as they were back in Resembool.

Edward flopped back into the cabs ratted seats, letting out a deep sigh. His shoulders relaxed as his mind took him away from the West, further past the sweltering border to a land that he dreamed about nightly.

To a land that held his heart and home, in more than one way. He absent gripped the purchase in his hand tighter. He looked down briefly, smiling at the small paper bag in his hand that held so much possibility for his future.

He pulled his coat open, slipping the package into the interior jacket. He paused as it fought back; suddenly remembering the envelope nestled in its confines. He looked up at the approaching hotel, deciding quickly that he had enough time to read what the letter entailed before he reached the hotel. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the paper, the crease folded angrily from him mistreatment. Edward ran his finger along the corner briefly before slipping it into the small gap and tearing a careful line across the top of the envelope.

A smaller white piece of paper sat inside. With his curiosity peaked Edward reached inside, a warm smile blooming on his face immediately.

Each curve and small doodle of the paper he knew by heart, the penmanship only possible by one person. His eyes scrolled over the way she wrote his name, the curves bouncing like her happiness did.

_Edward,_

_ I hope you find my note and I hope it leaves you well._

_ I'm thinking of you and I eagerly wait for your safe re__turn._

_ I love you,_

_ -Winry_

He refolded the paper after rereading it a few more times, his face unable to physically rid itself of the smile etched on it.

"A letter from a sweetheart?"

The cab driver's voice jolted Edward from his stupor. He looked up into the rear view mirror, seeing a mirthful look in the older man's face reflected back at him.

Edward nodded proudly, his hand reaching in his now empty pocket and depositing his package into it, patting it he reassured himself that his most recent purchase was safe and tucked away.

"Yeah," He mumbled quietly, looking away quickly to hide the love he knew shone through when anyone started to talk to him about Win. It was one thing to adore her to her face and while he was alone, and another to emasculate himself in front of a stranger.

"She must be a pretty good lad to give a man a look like that."

Edward smiled at his reflection in the mirror. "Oh she is."

He looked forward back to the cab driver. "Do you have anyone like that?"

The driver scoffed and laughed ruggedly.

"I did once boy, but I was a fool, let her get away. It's never been the same since."

Edward nodded, not really knowing what to say to comfort the stranger.

"Just don't let her get away."

Again, Edward nodded, "Oh, I have no plans on letting that happen."

The small space the two shared lapsed into a comfortable silence as the ride went on. Edward stared out the window absently, watching as small snowflakes fluttered against the window, melting shortly after when they stuck too long to the warmer glass.

"What the hell?"

Edward looked up at the drivers mumble, seeing a small traffic accident ahead of them.

"Is something wrong?"

The driver grunted and looked around at the oncoming intersection and shrugged his shoulders.

"We get so little snow that it looks like some dumb ass managed to get themselves into a wreck. People lose their head when anything out of the ordinary happens around here." He told the younger man, squinting to see past the falling snow.

"It doesn't look too bad." He muttered after a second, sighing deeply as he put the car in park. "Unfortunately it looks like we're going to be stuck here until they get the road cleared a little more. Don't worry kid,

I won't charge you for it."

Edward smiled and uttered a small thanks before looking back out into the quickly darkening sky.

He squinted as he saw blurred lights heading a too fast for his comfort towards them. His heart rate spiked as he realized that they wouldn't be able to stop before they reached the car he was sitting it.

Reacting on pure instinct and adrenaline he jerked to the side of the car. "Get out of the car! That guys not going to stop!"

"Wha-?"

Before the driver could even realize what was going on a loud bang shuttered in Edward's ears, followed by an even larger jolt, slamming his unbuckled body against the opposite window.

His vision dimmed quickly as the sound of crunching metal, popping glass, and distant screams echoed in his fading hearing.

Cold seeped through to his body quickly and an all-consuming darkness embraced his being, dragging him down into the pit of darkness he never wanted again to be in.

**OoOoOo**

Edward dreamt.

If you were to ask him what of he could have told you nothing, and of everything.

Colors and lights flashed in his darkness.

A mouth full of happy teeth danced in his vision.

Green fields and blooming flowers kissed at his cheeks.

Warmth and long tanned arms embraced him.

And one word, one name, echoed endlessly in his endless hole.

_Winry._

**OoOoOo**

He wasn't sure what woke him first.

He didn't know if it was the steady beeping ringing harshly in his ears, or the cold bite that was eating away at his toes. It could have also very well have been the damp spot sitting on his arm, or the uncanny urge to empty his bladder.

He didn't know what it was that woke him, and the further he was drug away from the dark hole he was in the more he didn't care.

He groaned softly as he attempted to open his eyes, only successfully managing to squint one open after trying to peel them both awake.

With the arm that didn't feel like it was glued to the floor he reached up, rubbing his pained eyes. With a hiss he brought his hand away from his face as a sharp pain thrummed through his skull from his unopened eye.

He'd been in enough fights in his life to know that he somehow had sustained a black eye.

"Mother fucker." he mumbled angrily, trying to lift his head and see where it was he was at exactly.

Looking over to his dead arm he arched his unharmed eyebrow. A head full of blonde trusses met his vision and he grimaced to himself as he realized who it was.

The last person who he'd wanted to know he was here, was already here herself.

It also seemed as if she had managed to pass out from what he was sure was sheer exhaustion.

Weakly he reached over and placed his hand on top of her head.

Winry jolted up in a rush, her hair slapping him against the face as her panicked eyes bore into his own.

"Edward." she squeezed out, tears already beginning to brim, their fullness dangerously close to leaking over and down her cheeks.

"Hey," he tried to say, though what came out was more of a scratching hoarse sound that he was not anticipating. He pointed with the only good appendage it seemed he had at the moment to the small glass of water he spotted at his bedside.

"Water! Of course you want water." Winry blabbered helplessly as she grabbed the glass and brought the bendy straw up to his prone body.

"Oh Edward, I was so afraid. When they called me and told me that you were in an accident! I didn't know what to think! I jumped on the first train and when I got here you were still out, and you looked so beaten up." Winry cried, the tears finally falling from her swollen eyes as the stress finally caught up with her.

Edward spit the straw from his lips and cleared his throat, cutting Winry's tirade of emotional downpour off.

"Win, please, hush. I'm fine."

"You're not fine!" Winry cut in, followed by a few more strands of lose tears.

"Winry." He said, cutting her off again.

She sucked her lip in, her eye brows drawing to a concerned and distraught point in the center of her forehead. That was a look that he remembered all too well.

Back when he had first lost his limbs and was sickly on her very own operating table that look hovered over him, haunting him, encouraging him to get better soon—to rid that look off her face.

"Please Win, calm down, I'm really confused as it is right now and you're jumbling my brain up."

He meant it as a joke, really he did. But as push comes to shove he lacked to energy to change the tone in his voice. Winry didn't take it as a joke, that much he could tell. Hurt swelled in her eyes and she slowly put the cup back on his bedside table.

"I'll go get the doctor." She mumbled quietly.

Edward reached out, narrowly grabbing the bottom of her shirt as she turned to exit.

She paused and turned to look back at him, the glassy tears still not leaving her eyes.

He tugged lightly at her shirts hem, locking eyes with her and letting a small smile leak on his face.

"I'm glad you're here."

Winry smiled and leaned down, kissing him softly along his hair line. From his vantage point Edward could smell the very sent of her as she helped heal him with her kiss.

"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?"

Slowly she stood back up and turned around, heading out the door. Edward watched her leave the door and quickly turn back in.

"Don't go anywhere!" She told him sternly.

He raised an eye brow at the woman.

"And where would I go?"

She shrugged, "who knows, you're always finding some sort of trouble. I wouldn't put it past you to find it here to."

Edward scoffed and turned his sight towards the only window in his room, hearing as she giggled and started down the hall.

He was glad that he had at least finally made her laugh.

Absentmindedly, he ran his hand across his chest, feeling the too thin hospital gown under his fingers.

Edward paused as a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Holy. Fuck!"

Franticly he patted down his chest, grimacing in pain as he carelessly beat his still new wounds in his panicked wake.

"Where the fuck is it, where the fuck is it?"

Disregarding the pain Edward heaved himself into a sitting position. Immediately he regretted his hastiness, bearing his teeth and slamming his eyes shut tight as he breathed through his nose, the pain recoiling through his very bones it seemed.

"Fuck," he muttered again. Slowly he turned his head, trying not to heave as the room spun with him. Leaning over he clasped the railing of his bed and looked around the room, trying to see where all his clothes were.

"Where the fuck—"

"Edward!"

"Sir!"

Edward jolted as a loud male and Winry yelled out at him, his head splitting open from the rush of adrenaline and the sudden movement.

"Fuck!" He yelled, grabbing the side of his head as he felt hands gently pushing him back down into the bed.

"Edward! What are you doing? You can't just be getting up like that! You're injured!" Winry reprimanded her voice shrill in concern and anger.

"You never do anything that I say! You don't even take it into consideration! I should just beat you myself! It'll save you the hassle sense you're so damn keen on doing it yourself!" She yelled at him, her hands planted firmly on her hips as she glared down at his broken body.

"Oi! It's not like I—"

"Uhhh hum."

The room fell quiet and both patient and girl looked over towards the quiet doctor.

"Really ma'am, this is not good for his health." He told Winry pointedly.

Edward glared at the man, his temper flaring.

"Don't talk to her like that." He told the man coldly. He was sure that his glare looked ridiculous, with one eye blue, green, and every other color of the rainbow; he knew the man would have to bite a hard bargain to take him seriously. It should be said however, that even though the dog looked battered he still had his bite.

The doctor nodded his head slightly, pushing his falling glasses back up the bridge of his nose from the action.

"I do apologize sir howe—"

"Cut the shit, where's my stuff?" Edward interrupted, giving the man no room to talk. He wanted his original clothes back and he wanted to leave.

"I'm sorry sir I don-"

"Look, I don't care what it is that you're about to say, but I want my clothes back. I sure as hell don't wear this shit," He pulled the flimsy hospital gown away from his chest in further emphasis, "and I know I didn't walk, roll, or was drug in with it, so I want my original clothes back and I need them back now."

"Edward, please!"

The doctor rolled his falling glasses back up his nose. Silently he took a step forward and removed the chart hanging from the foot of Edward's bed away.

"It seems as if he's still suffering slightly from what appears to be a concussion." He murmured, clicking a pen from his pocket and scratching along the paper neither Edward nor Winry could see.

"Is everything okay?" Winry asked anxiously while wringing her hands against the bottom of her shirt.

The doctor nodded slowly and looked up at the woman, completely ignoring the fuming man in the bed.

"It appears that he's still suffering from a mild concussion. We'll need to keep him overnight for further observation. Other than that everything else checks out. A few badly bruised ribs, whip lash, and head trauma, he should be okay to go as soon as that concussion is cleared out." He told Winry plainly. He arched his eyebrow over the rim of his glasses as he studied Edward's only mechanical limb. "However, I am not a mechanic and the damage sustained to his leg is not my expertise. I would suggest calling in his mechanic to get it looked out, or wait till we discharge him."

Winry nodded and smiled kindly at the older male. "Thank you doctor, I will."

The man nodded mutely and dropped Edwards chart back against his foot board.

"Be good." He told Edward plainly as he turned to leave.

"Doc, I want my shit!" Edward yelled out.

"I'll have one of the nurse's check on it." The man told him simply.

Edward scoffed and settled back into his bed with a glare at anything that attempted to look at him.

"Edward, what the hell?" Winry asked as she took a seat at his bed side.

"I just want to know where my jacket is." He huffed, his nerves tightening in his chest.

"Why is it that important?"

Edward looked over at the woman, seeing—again—the concern in her eyes. He knew that he really shouldn't be concerning her with even more of his baggage.

"It's my favorite jacket." He said simply, pouting and yet pleased as a small smile leaked back on Winry's face.

"You goof, I'll ask around, but really it's nothing to get upset about. You can always get a new one." She told him gently, resting her hand lightly on his forehead.

Edward locked his golden orb with her icy blues, just staring deep into their depths.

"Just please Win, try to find it for me."

Winry smiled at him and nodded as she trailed her eyes to his bruised eye and along his beaten face. Slowly she trailed her fingers along his hair line and finally into his scalp.

"I'll keep an eye out for it." She told him pleasantly, running her fingers absently through his hair and watching as his eye drooped, the gold blurring and threatening sleep.

"Thanks." He mumbled out.

She smiled and continued the ministration, lulling him back into a sleep. "Get some sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up."

Her voice itself was a lulling drug to Edward, mixed in with the added pleasure of her fingers running soothingly through his even aching scalp and he was a done man.

**OoOoOo**

Edward woke to the sound of a loud crash followed by a louder curse.

"Son of a bi-!"

He peaked his good eye open and looked down at the blonde tresses bent over the lower half of his body.

"Winry?" He asked groggily.

Winry sat up and smiled sheepishly at the damaged man.

"Hey Ed, I'm really sorry that woke you up." She apologized, briefly rolling her shoulder back to indicate behind her. Edward rolled on his side slightly, seeing the large wrench sitting on the floor.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Winry smiled and bent over quickly, grabbing her fallen tool and setting back to her original work.

"There's surprisingly very little damage you sustained from that wreck. It's a little enough that a bit of re-wiring can take care of it for now, but when you come home I'm going to need to order some new parts.

Just take it easy on this leg for a while, you're running on very little support here." She darted her eyes to Edward's and smiled quickly before refocusing her attention back to his mechanical limb. "I was hoping that I would have this finished before you woke up."

She glared at the wrench in her hand. "I probably would have too." She mumbled hatefully.

Edward smirked at the frustrated woman. "Yeah that thing sucks anyways; you should just throw it away."

Winry laughed at him.

Not with, but at.

Edward arched a brow at her.

She smirked and looked up at him.

"What ever would I use to punish you with if I threw it away?"

Edward scoffed and looked away.

"Frigid bitch."

Winry hid a smile at his murmured retort. Though she would normally beat him blue for that comment it was a relief to hear his old ways slowly coming back. When she had first received that phone call from the hospital she had panicked and hopped on the first train over. It wasn't like he hadn't been in danger before, but to see him so beaten afterwards always left a gut wrenching feeling in her heart.

Walking into that room and seeing him lying there with his beaten body unconscious and bruised had almost sent her into a panic attack all on its own. Only after she had talked to the doctor did she finally calm down and watch over him until he regained his wits.

Winry peaked at Edward from her lashes. Realistically she knew he'd never regain his wits.

He had to have some to start with.

A full smile bloomed on her face at the thought and she turned towards him fully, putting her tools down and clasping his hand into her own.

"I caught the doctor in the hallway and he said that we could get you out of here hopefully within the day if we're lucky." She told him happily, watching as the relief from her statement washed over his face, calming the stress lines he was developing from his hospital visit.

"Thanks a lot Win." He said softly, squeezing her hand for emphasis. She smiled broadly at him.

"It's no problem. I'm going to go put my things away real quick and then I'll be back for you. If I see that doc again too, then I'll try my hardest to sweet talk him into letting you leave today." She told him happily, releasing his hand and gathering her tool to place them away.

She stood up from his bedside and swung her bag across her shoulder.

"Ill be right back." She told him.

"Don't sweet talk that ass too much Winry!" He yelled after her, his spirits lifted at the concept of finally being able to go home.

Sure, it wasn't like he had even been at the hospital that long, but he hated being in it regardless. In his own personal opinion he felt like he would sooner be better with the rest and relaxation Resembool had to offer then here in the West.

There was just something about nursing wounds at home.

A soft knock interrupted his musings.

He furrowed his brow. That hadn't taken Winry very long.

"Win?" He asked.

The door creaked open and a smaller nurse walked in quietly, smiling happily at him.

"How are you feeling?" She asked softly.

Edward grunted. "Ready to be out of here already."

She grimaced sympathetically and again quickly smiled at him.

"I know that you want to leave soon sir, and I'm sorry that you're stuck here but the Doctor asked me to find your belongings for you." She pushed forward a neatly wrapped bundle he hadn't noticed till just then. "I believe everything's here sir." She bowed professionally as he sat up, throwing his legs slowly over the side of the bed and took it from her.

"Thank you." He said honestly, a heavy weight releasing off his shoulders.

The nurse stood up and beamed at him.

"You're very welcome sire, and good luck!"

Edward looked away quickly from the bubbly nurse, red staining his cheeks.

"Thanks."

Again she bowed at him before darting out of the room.

Slowly Edward examined the package she had given him, suddenly feeling as if it weighted hundreds of pounds. He took the frayed end of one of the strings, pulling the rope loose and letting the paper fall open in his lap. He pushed the longer flaps of paper away and saw his jacket sitting there along with his other cloths, blood stained on most of them. He reached into the pocket and a nervous breath swooshed out of his body.

"Edward?"

Edward jumped up at hearing Winry calling his name, grimacing and falling ungracefully on his knee as his mechanical leg gave out.

"Edward!" Winry yelled, rushing quickly to his side.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? Why did you stand up so quickly, I told you that that leg couldn't stand that amount of stress so soon!" She fretted quickly, holding her hands out for him to take.

Edward reached up and grasped her hand, tugging lightly to get her attention.

"Edward?" Winry asked after a second as he panted heavily while clutching her hand.

"Are you oka—"

"Winry." Edward said softly, interrupting her fretting thoughts.

"What's wr-"

"Winry please." Edward interrupted again.

Quickly she grew quiet, watching anxiously as he stared down at his disabled leg. His shoulders shook softly.

"Ed?"

"It's always like this." He said quietly. "You're always helping me when I fall."

He looked up at her, his eyes burning into her soul.

"Every time I need you the most you're there for me Winry. Even when I thought I didn't need you, you continued to be there for me. It turns out you're really all I need." He told her.

Winry watched him with furrowed brows.

He reached up with his other hand and pulled out a box she just noticed him holding, her heart skipping a beat and the world zooming in on nothing but her and him.

"You're all I'll ever need Winry, and I hope that I can be all you'll ever need too."

Tears blurred her vision suddenly as he popped the lid of the small box open, revealing a small ring with a royal diamond setting in it.

"Winry, will you marry me?" He asked quietly, his heart pounding as she yanked her hand away from him and covered her mouth, her tears overflowing to fall down her cheeks. She dropped to her knees in front of him, their faces now together and released her hands, wrapping them tightly around his neck and chocking around her tears to talk.

"Yes Edward, yes." She told him happily, laughing and leaning back to stare into his face.

He smiled happily back at her, grabbing her left hand and slipping the ring he'd bought for her across her ring finger.

She starred at the ring and then back at Edward, grabbing his face tenderly and kissing him sweetly on the lips. She smiled against his lips as she felt him wrap his arms around her waist to pull her closer to him.

A sniffle broke their kiss and both froze, turning to look back at the door.

The nurse who had delivered Edward's package stood there, along with the other nurse staff, each dabbing at the corner of their eyes with broad smiles on.

"What the fu-?" Edward mumbled, staring at Winry as she broke out into laughter and looked back at Edward.

She kissed him sweetly on the lips again.

"This is the beginning huh?" She asked him.

He smiled back at her, no longer caring of their nosey audience.

"A very beautiful beginning." He mumbled to her.

Winry's eyes glowed brightly as her heart swelled to degrees she thought it might explode.

"I love you."

A smile.

"I love you."

And she knew that there would be rough times, and even times when she might think that she didn't need him either, but they would always be together, and they would always need the other.

**OoOoOo**

**a.n. This one was super fun to write! I hope yall love it as much as I loved writing it. A huge huge thanks to my Beta, she's the coolest!**


	12. 12 Alchemist Part 1

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

_And a huge Thank You to my Beta_** S.N. Rainsworth!**

**Chapter Twelve: The Alchemist Part 1**

**This is fair WARNING this chapter is graphic in violence.**

**OoOoOo**

Her head was killing her.

The pulsing beat mercilessly against the inside of her skull, pressing harshly along the back of her closed lids. She groaned weakly, raising her hand up shakily to her head.

She stopped suddenly as something cold bit against her wrists. Snapping her eyes open she found the source of her problem.

Dread bubbled in the pit of her stomach, threatening what little contents were in there.

She was chained.

To a floor.

Panic rushed through her body quickly, her breathing hitching in desperation. She couldn't remember what had happened and she had no idea where she was.

She also had a sinking feeling that no one else knew either.

**OoOoOo**

Winry came to with a jolt, screaming in anger as she was yanked back down with a hard twist against her wrist.

"Now now, we wouldn't want to do that," a hot voice sneered down her neck.

She ground her teeth in anger as her fight instinct came reeling in, her muscles tensing in anticipation.

"Fuck you!" she spat back, trying to twist her body away from the one behind her.

A hand fisted in her hair, yanking her head back until the very tendons in her neck screamed in protest.

"Now, now," the voice said against her ear, the tone tighter than it was just a moment before, "I really wouldn't do that if I were you."

Winry yanked against the binds around her wrist and the hand twisted in her hair, ignoring the pain that sparked and the knee jerk tears that came to her eyes. "I'll fucking kill you." she snarled to the person behind her.

The maniacal laugh twisted her gut into knots she didn't know it was possible to have.

"You see dear, that, unfortunately, won't happen. You are the one that will be leaving in pieces."

She ignored the icy chill that ran down her spine, determined to not let the cretin get the best of her. She spat out a laugh of her own, smirking into the air and trying to shift her eyes far enough to the side to see her captor.

"You just wait, either I'll get out of these and kick your ass myself or my husband will do the job for me." she said with a smug confidence.

A harder jerk to her head had her quickly gasping for breath before her face was turned roughly and she found herself eye to eye with the man that was threatening her.

"And that's just what I'm hoping for." he told her simply, a sinister smile crawling onto his cracked lips. "After all, he's the only one that can do these types of transmutations circles."

Winry furrowed her brow, barring her teeth at the man. "You're fucking crazy. He doesn't even perform alchemy."

And he didn't. Ever since Edward's final fight with Father and after his final passage from the other side he was unable to perform any type of Alchemy. The only one now that could perform any type of alchemy in their family was limited to Alphonse—who spent only a week out of every summer to come visit them from Xing.

The only thing that Edward did now that involved alchemy was help Alphonse in his studies for Alkahestry and teach at the school.

This man was crazy.

A scowl crawled onto his face. If he wasn't so insane and didn't have such a sinister aura around him Winry could almost say that he would have passed off as a good looking man on the side of the street.

However, as it was proving to be, that was not the case.

His eyes, a cold blue, bore accusingly into her own, his brows drawling into an angry line along his face.

"You think I'm stupid?" he spat in her face.

Winry cried out as he reeled back, throwing her away from him and into the unyielding ground.

"You're only doing this to yourself." he told her simply as he stood above her, looking down at her with his nose screwed up, as if she were an insect belonging on the bottom soles of his shoes.

He turned on his heal and walked into the shadows, his steps echoing with each determined stride.

"See let me tell you something, little lady," he began, "You're husband is going to come for you."

His voice echoed as it traveled along the wall. Winry shifted her body quickly, trying to determine where he was hiding in the shadow. Her hands were chained to the floor by a thick steel cuff that ran under the floor and kept her arms stretched to a certain length apart. She shifted her legs, quickly determining that it was the same there too.

"How are you so sure about that?" Winry challenged. She knew that Edward was going to be coming for her. She didn't have to even question it, but the longer she could keep this maniac talking then the more time she had to figure out what she could do—if that was even anything at all.

She heard the man laughing again to himself.

"Well, you see, it's so hard these days to know what a family's relationship is really like behind closed doors. So, just in case, I brought myself a bargaining chip."

Winry froze she heard the last of his comment, a new type of terror consuming her.

At her quiet response the man laughed again and stepped out of the shadows. He dropped by her turned away form, grinning from ear to ear. Slowly he reached out and yanked her chin towards him, staring dauntingly into the wide eyes of a cornered animal.

"You see, little bird, I have your baby bird here with me to insure a certain alchemists arrival." he laughed at her face.

The muscle in woman's jaw tightened as she stared at the man laughing at her face.

This sick bastard had taken her child.

Her baby.

A rage unlike any she had ever felt lit under her heals, blinding her vision from the demon hovering above her.

He laughed and crept closer to her face; bring his mouth to her ear.

"Are you scared yet little bird?" he asked.

With a strength that was unfound, Winry wrenched her head out of her captors grasp, spinning quickly into his cheek and clamping down.

Nothing would make her loosen her clutch on the flesh, not the pained shriek or the metallic taste of blood as it filled her mouth.

This man would die, be it by her hands or the hands of some greater power, he would die.

Or she would die trying.

A hand shot out, punching her quickly in the temple. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes from reflex, though her teeth stayed seated firmly in the bastards flesh.

As another swift punch swung down on her temple Winry growled deep in her throat, throwing her head back. If he was going to make her release her hold then she would at least give him something to remember her by.

The satisfying feeling of flesh ripping under her teeth caused another shriek of outrage from her attacker.

She knew what was coming next, and with a final swift yank of her head and a popping of flesh, a fist met her temple.

Darkness quickly came forward, swallowing her in its soft embrace.

**OoOoOo**

"Dammit!"

Papers flew off the desk in a furious disarray.

"What do you mean you don't know where the fuck they are?" Edward yelled at the officer standing in his living room.

"I'm sorry sir, there's just no lead for us to go on." he spoke quietly, watching as a dark desperation built in the blond's eyes.

"My wife and child are out there somewhere and you're telling me no one saw anything?" Edward demanded angrily, pointing to the darkened sky.

Quiet met his question.

It was probably best that the officer didn't say anything; nothing would consult the distraught man until his wife and daughter were returned safe back to him. Turning away from the officer, Edward walked to the darkened window. He slammed his fist against the window pane, his eyes staring lifelessly into the darkness, begging it to open up and give him some type of insight.

"Dad?"

Edward clenched his fist as he heard a soft voice call for him.

Composing himself quickly he turned around to face his troubled son.

"What's up Eddie?" he asked carefully, seeing the shadows behind his son's eyes—adding a haunting reminder to his own which he knew looked so much alike. Once he found out what happened to his wife and child he would destroy whatever took them from him. If not for his own sake then for the pain they induced in his son.

"I was just wondering if they'd found anything." he whispered.

Edward fought to keep from flinching at the question. He had to be Daddy still, and he had to be strong for his children.

Slowly he shook his head, making sure to keep the determination shining in his eyes.

Eddie had grown so much. He looked just like Edward had when he was a teenager. The only difference Edward could tell between him and Eddie was how soft he was. Eddie tended to act more like Alphonse did—soft, sweet—but with a spice of his mother—irrational and short tempered. Those though could also be related back to him just as much as it could Winry.

At the thought of his absent wife his heart twinged. He never thought that something like this could happen to his family. If it were even eighteen years ago he would have seen it coming, but not now. Not today. All his enemy's had been snuffed out and the only ones these days who even knew of his past alchemy was the Fuhrer and everyone who helped stand by his side as he took down the past evils. His students didn't even know about him; it was part of his new contract. He worked for the state as a professor under a separate alias. It was easiest to teach like that then bleed out his life story as to why he taught alchemy but couldn't perform it. Though every year he still had that question asked at least once. It was just easier to ignore it than if they knew who he really was.

The only part of his job that he wished he didn't have to do was the history of alchemy.

He didn't know whose sick joke it was (his bet was on Mustang) but he hated talking about himself in the history section. It was hard to keep his composure and even harder to answer questions like he didn't know from a personal perspective.

It was also hard to explain why he knocked students out for making ignorant comments to their parents when it was just the history section.

"We will continue our search, Mr. Elric, but until we find anything we ask that you stay here with your family. If it's a ransom that someone wants then they will leave a note or call, and we'll be sending someone over immediately to respond to either of those scenarios," the man trailed off slowly at the dark look that the Elric was sending him. "but I'm going to dispatch the rest of the team back into the streets to see if we can find anything anyways." he continued after a slow pause.

Edward glared hotly at the man who was anciently useless to him.

"Get out of my house." he said slowly. He knew that he was probably being too hard on this…poor public servant, but he had very little tolerance for the weak shit that the city was giving him.

The officer bowed politely and quietly left, his voice muffled from beyond the door as he instructed his subordinate what to do. Edward watched as the police officers got back into their car and headed into Resenbowl.

"Dad, what are we going to do?"

Edward looked back at Eddie, determination set of his face.

"Well, first I call Mustang, and then we get some real officials on this case."

**OoOoOo**

Winry groaned as consciousness slowly crept along the corners of her mind.

Experimentally she wiggled her fingers and toes, letting out a small grunt of relief as all appendages responded, though with pangs of stiffness.

She rolled her head to the opposite side, squinting her eyes open and trying to collect her bearings. Her mouth pulled into a frown, the action causing a stinging pain along her cheek and temple. The memory of what sent her into oblivion came crawling back. She bit back a shudder of disgust and swallowed hard, trying to keep her mind off the fact that the stinging along her mouth was crusted with blood from her assailant.

"Fuck." she muttered darkly, her eyes slowly adjusting to the little light that was in the room.

She could almost swear that it was naturally dark from midnight, but she had no true idea what the source was from.

Trying to collect her bearing quicker and snap her mind back into action she spun her head back again, rolling to the side she was previously on.

Almost immediately a putrid smell attacked her nose.

Winry froze, her eyes widening as she desperately tried to adjust to the dark.

She knew that smell. Anyone who had ever been unlucky enough to smell that smell would never forget such a stench.

It was the stench of something rotting.

And not just any rot, it was the stench of a _human_ rotting.

Slowly the darkness started taking form and to Winry's horror a blurred shadow was crumpled on the floor next to her.

"No," she whispered harshly, praying to God that it wasn't Sara.

"Please God no," she mumbled again, fat tears building in her eyes.

Painstakingly slow, her eyes adjusted to the darkness around her, illuminating the face before her. She let out a gasping breath of relief as a stranger's face came into view. Never would she wish death upon anyone, but she had never been so happy to see a carcass. It wasn't Sara, that was all that mattered to her.

The tears fell out of her eyes and onto the cobblestone below her, running away from her and pooling into odd grooves into the structure.

Still though, her eyes stayed glued to the one before her, a cold hand wrapping around her body.

Clouded blue eyes stared lifelessly back at her, the face an ashen white and lips the cool color of death's blue. It was a woman, and Winry could tell that she used to be a very beautiful woman. Her hair hung listlessly against her body, stands falling onto her once ample cheeks. She looked no older than Sara; she could even pass as one of Edward's students.

"My God," she choked out, trying to stifle the sob that threatened to be released.

That bastard was sick, and she could only pray that he didn't touch Sara.

Ripping her eyes away from the unseeing ones she rolled her head back over. She didn't have to look into her own future to know that the probability of that happening to her was high to assured.

Winry shut her eyes closed, trying desperately to collect her bearings. She couldn't let this sicko have the satisfaction of breaking her. That would never happen. He could break her body, but he would never touch her spirit.

With a sense of determination Winry opened her eyes.

It was time to try a great escape.

Looking down she again saw the same grooves in the cobble stone, the creases running every which way. Shifting her eyes upward she was taken aback as she realized where her light was coming from.

A hole.

A huge, gaping hole was carved out of the ceiling, letting what little light the moon provided seep in. Her eyes stared shocked at the stars as they twinkled innocently at her, the clouds rolling by in variations of thick and thin puffs.

This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

What in the hell was going on?

Looking back around Winry noticed the moon light only extended to the hole and none of the surrounding areas. That would have made sense as to how the bastard moved around without her seeing him.

"Hiding in the shadows like a fucking coward," she murmured to no one.

Defiantly she pulled at her cuffs, hearing the chain scrape along the hollowed floor beneath her and running along the rocks in a loud burst of echoed scrapping.

The act proved two things to Winry. The first being that she was in large room, one that probably also had rock walls or some other type of fixture to create the loud echo that it did. The other being that she had caught her captors attention.

Though she could not see him through the surrounding shadows Winry could hear as he twisted a heavy metal door knob, the hinges creaking in their rustic state as he slowly opened the door. His footsteps echoed with small clicks as he lurked around her in the shadows, the heavy door creaking slowly back into place, though she could not hear it latch close.

"What do you want?" Winry asked into the darkness. Her eyes stared unseeingly into the shadows, her ears providing a better indicator as to where he was lurking about.

A chuckle, again, was the only sign that she had been heard and acknowledged.

Winry fell silent as she heard him moving around her, his footsteps faltering at the prone body lying beside her.

A scuff of boots and the heavy thud of a body had her rolling her head back around, watching as he came into view.

He had fallen to his knees beside the woman, his eyes staring at her with an emotion Winry couldn't quite place. She knew however, that insanity was one of them.

"Have you ever had someone you loved taken away from you?" he asked her after a thick moment of drawn out silence.

Winry remanded mute, choosing instead to watch what the man was doing. With no acknowledgement that he was looking for an answer, he continued to focus his entire attention on the woman before him. Slowly he reached up and stroked his hand along her cool cheek. The skin was soft to the touch though the head did not lull into his hand like a breathing lover would. Instead the rigor mortis remained hauntingly in place and the body remained impassively still.

"She's just barely celebrated her twenty first." he mumbled into the cobble stone prison.

"Alchemy is a crazy and magical thing." he started.

"It can't bring back the dead." Winry interrupted, her tone strong and unwavering, lacking the previous desperation he thrived on.

He looked up from his memories, glaring hatefully at the woman chained to the floor by him.

"Is that what your husband tells you to tell everyone?" He spat at her, his eyes sparking in uncontrolled madness.

"You can ask him yourself how his debauched attempt at bring the dead back happened. I'm sure he'll gladly tell you." Winry retorted, clenching her chained fists into tight balls.

The man continued to glare spitefully at her before slowly lowering his face back to the crumpled body on the floor. With one last stroke of her cheek he rose from his position and stood quickly, stepping over her to squat at the defiant woman before him.

Winry noted with a small spark of satisfaction the heavy gauze he had tapped to his check, the hems soiled with splotches of deep red.

He tisked at her as he glared down, shaking his head in that condescending way she had seen Eddie do so frequently to his own sisters.

"He was still such a young child when he performed his Alchemy though wasn't he?" he asked her rhetorically, his eyes ranking calculating along her body. "There was still so much he had yet to learn," he paused for what she assumed was dramatic effect, "I, however, have indulged a bit in finer arts of forbidden Alchemy." He giggled to himself in that way that had her skill crawling, looking away from her for a second with a crazed smile on his face.

He looked back at her with such a conviction it took the breath out of her lungs. "I have mastered the true equivalent exchange, and what better way to execute it than to allow the _best _alchemist be a part of it in some little way."

Winry glared at the man, "You better leave my daughter alone." she spat hatefully.

He laughed again at her assumptions, clapping his hands together in sick glee.

"Oh, but my dear, that would not be equivalent exchange, she's still just a child." His eyes fixed on her own, realization finally dawning in her soul. The body, the grooves in the stones, the methodical placement of every shape and being in the room.

"It is _you _who will help me." His smile showed a full mouth of teeth.

He pointed to his gauzed face, the smile never wavering. "And after all, it's only fair, you gave me something to remember you by, and I'll give Edward to remember something you by."

Panic set in. "And how the hell is _that _equivalent exchange?" Winry demanded, tugging up and at her chains.

"My success with be everywhere. Everyone will see it and recognize me for what I am—a great alchemist, and when Edward sees Elizabeth by my side he will always know that only you could have helped me with it!" he explained happily to her as if she were a challenged child.

"Then why the hell is my daughter here?" Winry demanded, sick of these games she was being stung into.

"Insurance." he mumbled hatefully, looking away from her and glaring disdainfully into the darkness.

"Insurance for what?" Winry yelled back at him, her temper getting the best of her, "If you're such a great alchemist then hurry up and alchefy shit! Let my daughter go and gloat after the fact, what do you possibly gain by stringing my family into this?" she screamed into his face, her temper spiking to new heights as he continued to glare unseeingly into the darkness shrouding them.

"Hey I'm talking to you!" she yelled after a moment of silence that stretched too far for her temper.

He sighed angrily and rolled his head back to glare hatefully at her, his lips pursing in contempt.

"You see there's only one problem." he sneered at her.

"And what the fuck would that be?" Winry demanded, thrashing her hands angrily linked to the floor. This bastard thought there was just _one _problem? She was seeing some serious discrepancies in their version of problems.

"I can't perform Alchemy." he simply stated, fazed not even in the least bit by Winry's angry tirade.

She stilled her struggle, staring wide eyed at the deranged individual.

"What?" she choked out harshly, her throat becoming gravely from misuse.

"Yes, it's a shame. I have a highly extensive knowledge of the science and yet no ability to actually perform it. Your husband will unfortunately have to perform this great act for me." he stated simply, looking up towards the moon and stoking his chin in thought.

"He'll never agree to it." Winry told him calmly, not liking the way her thoughts were turning, realizing how everyone was playing into this man's trap and her ultimate demise.

"Yes, well, that's what your daughter is here for." he said to her, standing swiftly and stepping over her, retreating back towards the door.

"I have a few phone calls to make. It's just about time and I'm sure that your husband will be glad to get your daughter back safe and sound." he told Winry over his shoulder as his body quickly disappeared into the darkness and the hinges of the door squealed as they were pushed to a resounding shut.

Winry stared at the moon above her, her gut twisting into knots.

She didn't know what was worse. The fact that this man was crazy and wanted Edward to kill her to bring his old lover back to life, or the fact that Edward could no longer perform alchemy.

"Son of a bitch. Edward you better figure something out." she whispered, her eyes fixed on the looming moon above her.

**OoOoOo**

"Fuck."

A dark eye brow arched his way, calculating eyes watching his monotony as he paced from one fixed point to another.

"Really Edward, a calm mind is needed if you wish to insure the safe return of your wife and child."

Edward paused in his pacing and looked at the man he loved to loath.

The talent was also extremely forthcoming for him at the moment as well.

"Mustang, I really appreciate your help and all, but why the hell are _you_ here?" he demanded angrily.

Mustang rolled his shoulders back, shifting into a more comfortable position in his chair.

"Someone has to make sure that you keep a level head through this all." he told the man, crossing his arms in obvious superiority.

Edward arched a blond brow at him. "And it just had to be you?" he asked sourly.

Mustang smirked at him briefly before his mouth thinned and the teasing left his tone. "That—and Edward if something is going to happen it's best that someone who can still perform alchemy is with you."

Edward looked away from Mustang, knowing that him being here was one of the smarter choices that he had, and still unwilling to admit it.

"Fuck." he muttered to himself, his fists clenching at his side. He hated that he couldn't perform alchemy anymore. And at a time like this all it did was leave him feeling hallow and handicap to the ones around him.

With a huff Edward threw himself into the chair beside Mustang, burrowing his face into his palms, his shoulders hunched and emotions hay wire.

Mustang looked away from the distraught man, wishing there was something that he could better do. In all the years he had known him he had never heard Edward so reserved when he first called him, letting him know what was going on. That was the first tip to the older man that his friend was doing worse than he really thought he was. After Edward had initially called him Roy sent out Centrals' best police force and detectives and had rushed to help the Elric's.

It was the least he could do.

"Hey Roy?" Edward started, his face still buried between his hands.

"Hmm?" Mustang grunted, looking over to the hunched man.

"When all this is over I want you to do me a favor." he said softly.

Mustang remained silent as he waited for the Edward to finish, his brows furrowed in concern.

Edward peaked out from his hands glaring daggers at Mustang. "Tell your brat to stay the hell away from my daughter." he seethed, his glare heating on the man as he threw his head back and laughed.

"It's not my problem that your daughter is infatuated with my son. And let's face it, with a stud of a father it's not surprising that it passed onto my children."

Edward growled at the man, "I'll have Eddie kick his ass if it happens again."

Mustang just laughed, his heart lifting at the knowledge that Edward was not losing hope.

He would get his family back.

All of them.

A loud knock interrupted the men and they both quickly quieted, looking towards the door another, more urgent, knock resounded through the room, followed by an anxious, "Furher sir?"

Mustang rose from his seat as did Edward, beckoning the man in with a booming 'yes' and watching as he hurried in, bowing briefly before resetting his posture, his eyes trained strait and shoulders back.

"Sir, we just received a call from a man who claims he needs to speak with Mr. Elric immediately."

Mustang looked over to Edward and watched as confusion filtered across his face. With a small nod at the soldier he had him show them to the phone.

The trio walked to the room the phone was innocently sitting in, the mouthpiece sitting beside the modem. Before Edward could answer the caller Mustang reached out, grabbing the officer by his blouse, bringing his face closer to his own. "I don't know who this is, and frankly I don't give a shit, put a tracer on it." he whispered, waiting for the officers nod of understanding before releasing him.

He leaned into Edward as he reached for the phone, speaking softly to the man. "Try to get as much information out of him as possible. Listen to the background, take note of _everything_." Mustang advised seriously, standing tautly beside Edward.

Slowly Edward nodded and reached out, taking the phone and bringing it to his ear.

At first all he could hear was the heavy breathing of the caller on the other end.

"Hello?" he spoke cautiously, his eyes staring at a fixed point in the room, his adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Ah, Edward Elric. I've heard so much about you." The man spoke back, sounding much more calm than he did.

Edward shifted his eyes to Roy, nodding swiftly and speaking with a more harsh determination than before, "Who is this?"

The voice chuckled.

"Oh how rude of me, where are my manners?" He mocked, "Mr. Elric, my name is of little relevance and you are in no position to be asking me any such questions."

Edward felt his temper spiking at the unknown caller. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the person who had taken Sara and Winry.

"Where are they?" he demanded back, truthfully not giving a rats ass about the man's name. There were more important things at hand.

"Well they're safe for the time being. I need you though." he told Edward simply.

"Fine." he said swiftly, wishing to get the pointless shit out in the air and out of the way.

"Aww, you're no fun, don't you at least want to know what I need you for?" he asked condescendingly.

Edward growled into the phone, gripping the plastic in his hand threateningly.

"I frankly don't give a shit. I want my wife and daughter back." he spat.

The voice on the other end sighed angrily. "You know running into things you don't know anything about can cause people to die."

"Like you?" Edward snapped, his temper being pushed to its limits.

"Mr. Elric if you cannot cooperate than I will kill your wife and child needlessly. Would you like that?" he asked angrily.

Edward sucked in his breath through his teeth, feeling his jaw strain from the tight bite he had in fury.

"What do you want?" he asked through a clenched teeth.

"I need you to perform a transmutation circle for me." He told him, sounding suddenly as if they were best of friends talking about the weather.

"I can—"

"And Mr. Elric before you tell me that you can't perform Alchemy please spare me. Your wife already tried and I can see through her lies. I can also see through yours. You might wish you couldn't perform such wonders, but you can, and you will, or your daughter will die."

"Fine." Edward snapped.

"Ah, I'm so glad that you finally yield to me. See, this transaction will be much smoother if you work with me." He said.

Edward growled at the man, but listened attentively as he instructed him what he was to do and where he was to go.

With a final snap of fine and a slamming of his hand Edward stood over the disconnected line, seething to himself.

"Do you know where _he_ is?" Edward asked Mustang slowly, trying to reel in his anger.

"In the warehouse district." Roy simply stated, watching Edward with a careful eye.

"Then we better come up with a fucking plan." He said softly, "Because this bastard is going to die."

"Edward," Mustang started, catching the younger man's eye, "I hate to pop any bubbles, but how the hell are you supposed to perform a transmutation circle?" He asked stoically.

Edwards eyes flashed brightly as a dark smirk slowly spread across his mouth.

"You still have that philosopher stone?"

**OoOoOo**

**A.N This is going to be my first attempt at a two part story, so the next one should be out sooner than a normal chapter would (I really need to pick my pace up on those :/)**

**Thank my beta super much, she makes my stories so much easier to read, I tend to get carried away with sometimes and she helps ground my silly mind! **

**Much love!**


	13. 13 Alchemist Part 2

_**Disclaimer:**__ Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say_.

_A series of drabbles, enjoy!_

_And a huge Thank You to my Beta S.N. Rainsworth!_

**Chapter Thirteen: The Alchemist Part 2**

**This is fair WARNING this chapter is _graphic_ in violence.**

**OoOoOo**

Sara had no real concept of time or place. She didn't know where she was, and she certainly had no idea what time it was. The room she was in was dark, the cold from the cement beneath her sneaking into her clothes and along the bottom of her legs. She huddled herself further into a ball, trying to find a somewhat comfortable position. Admittedly however, chains around your wrist didn't help the matter much.

She was starting to get angry. She was cold, hungry and would kill someone for a glass of water.

"Man this freaking sucks." She muttered to herself. Some creep pulls her and her mother off the side of the rode and she gets stuck alone.

It wasn't that she was scared for herself anymore really; the only thing that terrified her was where her mother was. She hadn't seen her captor very less her mother since walking down the street with her. The thought of some cretin even looking at her mother made her stomach curl and her hatred flare.

With how hard headed the rest of her family was though; she could only hope that her dad had already found and rescued her.

A sudden thump from outside her door had her pausing, her breath catching in her throat and her body tensing.

It seemed like her moment of truth was finally upon her.

The door was yanked open, the ferocity of the force used causing it to bang loudly against the metal pillars.

"Sara!"

Unwanted tears swelled in her eyes.

"Daddy!"

Edward ran quickly towards the sound, his breath hitching at the sight of his little girl huddled, dirty and chained, to the ground.

"Sara! Are you alright? Did he hurt you, did he touch you anywhere?" He demanded quickly, different horrors of what could have come to her playing through his head. If that bastard had even talked to her wrong-let alone looked at her wrong-then he would prolong his death to a slow and painful one.

"No! I haven't seen him or mom anywhere! I don't know what's going on! Why did he take mom? Daddy, where is she?" Sara asked breathlessly, the questions she had been unable to ask anyone so far rushing from her mouth at a million miles a minute.

Edward looked over his shoulder, yelling at a person standing guard outside.

"Mustang! Get your ass in here and get her unchained!" He demanded, turning his attention back quickly to his panicking daughter.

"Sara, honey, its okay, your mother will be okay and were going to get you out of here." He told her gently, cupping her face between his hands.

"Where are we?" She asked meekly, feeling the sting of tears leak from the corner of her eyes.

"We're in a warehouse district just outside of Central." He gently scrapped his thumb along the falling tear, his heart breaking at the sight.

This fucker was dead.

Mustang came up beside him, looking briefly at his daughter and immediately setting a controlled fire to a link. It burned brightly before snapping off with a ping, cluttering loudly to the floor.

As soon as Sara felt the chain give she wrapped her arm around her father, feeling the warmth from his body and bursting into heaving sobs, hardly noticing when the second chain gave and her other arm was freed.

"I was so scarred!" She wailed into his shirt, her fears finally able to be known now that her Dad was here.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay, you're going to be okay now." Edwards cooed gently to her, rocking her shaking body as he would when she was just a baby. "Were going to get you out of here," he told her, his mind reeling with the next steps that he had to take in order to secure his wife.

"Can you stand up?" He asked softly, slowly pulling her up with him before she could answer. Even if she couldn't get up he'd carry her out of this hell hole.

Sara nodded between sobs, wiping the back of her hand against her cheek, leaving a dark smudge behind. She knew that she must be looking pretty haggard right about now, but since her Dad was here she couldn't find the strength anymore to give a shit.

"Do you know where Mom's at?" She sniveled quietly, gripping Edwards arm tightly as he walked them quickly out of the warehouse and towards a parked car.

She saw the lines around his eyes tighten, his jaw clenching in temper.

"Yeah, Mustang and I have it narrowed down."

Sara looked at him wearily. "But you're not sure?"

Edward tightened his grip on her arm.

"Sara, I'm going to leave you with Mustang and go get your Mother. I'm almost certain that I know where she is, but I'm not willing to take any chances. As soon as I get her the both of you are going to the hospital."

Sara looked up in alarm. "You're leaving me alone?" She asked quickly, her anxiety peaking. She'd just gotten a semblance of her life back and now her Dad was going to go play hero.

She'd heard enough of her mother's stories to know how the majority of those ended. Unfortunately for her Dad the ratio was a fifty fifty chance of him coming out of this unscathed.

"Sara," Edward said sternly, locking identical eyes together, "I need to you trust me. I know that you're worried about your mother, but trust me." At the worried look still straining her eyes he smiled, "you mess with a man's family and you're in for a much harsher punishment. Don't worry about you old pops, he'll be okay."

A small tug lifted the corner of her lips. She reached up and took him into a tight embrace.

"Please be careful Daddy."

Edward smiled, kissing her once on top of the head. "Of course I will be."

He released her, turning to Mustang and raising an eyebrow.

"I'll kill you if anything happens to her." He threatened darkly.

Mustang smirked before clasping his hand tightly on Edwards shoulder.

"If anything happens to her and I'll let you kill me." He told him with all seriousness.

"I'll be back soon." He told the man, "Take her out of the city limits."

Mustang nodded, "already ahead of you on that one Elric."

Edward nodded and shook the man's hand quickly.

**OoOoOo**

Winry was getting tired, and she was getting tired quickly. Her joints ached, her back hurt, and the winter bite was making itself known along the entirety of her body. She lolled her head to the side, glad that in the very least she had finally become accustom to the God awful stench that permeated in the room. Of course from time to time she would still snag a particularly awful smell; it was for the most part dulled to her aching nose.

She shifted her eyes to the open ceiling, seeing the moon in all its glory just shyly peeking into the room.

"How much longer are you going to keep me like this?" She asked into the darkness, knowing that the maniac would answer her just from sheer boredom.

He was almost as predictable as her adolescent teen was.

Almost as dangerous too.

"It should be happening soon now, any minute."

The gravel of his voice could have been attractive if it wasn't touched with that distinct hint of madness.

Damn shame.

"When will you let my daughter go?" Winry asked smoothly. Her fear in him had all but dissipated when she realized what it was he truly wished to do with her. She wouldn't beg for her life.

Sara however was another matter entirely.

"Mrs. Elric, I won't be releasing her. My wife here will be." He said, stepping out of the shadows to point to the rotting corpse that she knew was lying prone beside her.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Winry muttered, glaring hatefully at the moon. Why couldn't it do something useful, like telling Edward where she was and how to get the fuck out of here.

She looked over to see her captor staring straight up, gauging something by the look in his eye. He nodded to himself before looking down at her.

"It's almost time."

A shiver ran through her body from those three words, the weight holding more than she was willing to admit just yet.

"Can I ask you one thing?" She asked tentatively, her heart fluttering like a trapped bird in her chest.

He shrugged lazily, running a dirty hand through his hair.

"I suppose so, what is it?"

"What's your name? How do you know about my husband?" Winry asked, shifting to stare into the shadows that protruded in unhealthy ways from his face. If she had seen him on the street she probably would have walked the other way.

It really was too bad he came up behind her.

"Hah! Well seeing as you're untimely death will shortly be upon you I see no shame in telling you my name." He crouched down, the crackling in his knees adding to the brittle form he looked like. "My name is Samil Osmer, and I studied at the school your husband teaches at." He told her simply, "He's a very good teacher, always encouraged his students to push themselves beyond their limits." A scowl marred his face, taking a sinister turn, "Of course until he's called out on being a hypocrite. I just wanted knowledge and he shut me down. It only took a little digging to realize how dirty his past deeds really were."

Winry closed her eyes softly. Those dirty past deeds were a scar that Edward wore and daily and she saw him trying to right the wrong he had done. He had made his amends; he had learned and was trying to teach from his mistakes.

There was no way that she was going to tell that to this man however.

She'd rather die first.

She sighed loudly, dragging a glare from Samil's face. "I guess he needs to learn how to teach if he's still spitting out idiots like you."

Samil growled low in his throat, grabbing her bruised cheek between his fingers roughly and pulling her face forward to meet his.

"Your _husband _threw me out of his class in front of the entire school department!" He screamed into her face, his hatred noticeable from the protruding vein in his head to the fire in his eye. "I ask him on the spot about human reanimation and he shuts me down! Not only does he shut me down, but he does it in such a way that I'm black listed from any Alchemy school! ANY!" He threw her face away from him, ignoring the way that it thud loudly against the floor.

Winry gasped for breath, not expecting such a violent reaction from him, her head buzzing loudly.

"But that's fine. It turns out that I didn't need him anyways. There are many arts of literature out there that anyone can read for a price." He looked away from Winry to stare at the full moon in all her glory. "And soon I will have everything and so much more. I will have everything that I ever wanted." His fists clenched at his sides. "With no help to _Professor Elric_." He spat.

Her head was pounding, the bruise matching the pulse in a mocking manner. The more she got to know Samil the more she began to realize that she was probably not going to be making it out of this alive.

As long as her daughter did though, then she wouldn't care. She knew that Edward would take it rough, but with Eddie and Sara he would be able to go on.

Lolling her head back towards Samil she starred at him, her gut clenching as he nodded to himself and turned towards the corpse at his feet.

"Soon," he whispered delicately, patting her hair like a lover would.

It was pathetic really, and totally disgusting.

Samil scooted over to Winry and grabbed her face, pulling a wince from the woman.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Elric, but your time has run out." He pushed her face away so she was starring directly at the moon above her, seeing it make a perfect circle above her. "Preparations have been made and the ceremony must be performed. Your husband should also arrive at any second. Hah!" He released her and walked into the shadows, the sounds of metal against metal echoing through the place.

He waltzed back into the moon light, his eyes shining demonically.

"Too bad, he might also be running a little late it seems."

Winry tried to dampen her panic as he stepped towards her again, the large knife in his hand reflecting the moons beams.

"You're probably wondering what all these little grooves are in the room," he started as he crouched above her head, inspecting the blade. "It's a circle that I've already carved into the floor. The only thing missing from it is your blood." He grabbed her arm quickly, ignoring the way she involuntarily tried to pull away, a strangled scream ripping from her throat.

"You've probably also noticed how large this circle is." He looked her dead in the eye. "I think I'm confident enough to say that you won't make it through this. I'm sorry." His voice reflected none of the sorrow he spoke about, and Winry was certain now that her end was imminent.

The first gash he made caused her to gasp, sucking the pain between her teeth. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her screams; she would take her dignity at least to the grave with her.

She could tell that he went deep. Sticky warmth creped down her wrist, pooling into the incisions he made across the floor and aiding to his insanity.

He stood up and moved to her other arm, repeating the process. Her eyes watered from the pain but still she refused to cry out.

It wasn't until he sliced a precise incision in her side that she couldn't contain it any more.

Winry let a desperate cry out, small tears falling from the corners of her eyes.

She didn't know how long she would have to be conscious for this, but she hoped that she would be spared the majority of this torture and die quickly.

"Edward." She wined under her breath. If only she could see him one last time.

Samil began laughing, watching as her blood slowly creased into the orifices he had created. At last his plan was coming through; he would have his wife back with his oh so shortly. Now all he needed was that Alchamist to come and transmute the circle.

A bang from outside alerted him to his new audience.

"Winry!"

Slowly she rolled her head to the side, her vision blurring and her heart puttering. It seemed like she would get to see her knight in shining armor just one last time.

The door flew open and his face was the only thing that was cleared in her blurred vision. A smile slowly creped on her face and she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders.

"Edward." She whispered, knowing that there would be no way for him to hear her over Samil's laughter.

"Winry!" The horror on his face was painful, but she was still happy he was here.

"Look at what you made me do! I had to start without you Edward!" Samil placed the tip of the blade on Winry's sternum, pushing hard enough to draw blood. "If you don't want to see her gutted like a lifeless pig then I suggest that you transmute this circle!" He screamed, his pupils dilated and his hand shaking.

Edward glared at the man, his fists balling at his sides.

"I know you," he seethed, "and you know that I can't perform Alchemy."

Winry gasped as she felt the knife slide just a little more inside her flesh, a bulb of blood blooming and running faster.

Edwards eyes shifted quickly to her then back to Samil, the worry evident on his face.

"Stop that!" He demanded, taking a small step towards them.

"No no Mr. Elric you stay where you are." Samil commanded, bringing the blade away from Winry and pointing it at the blonde man. "She has to die any ways, but I think we would both rather it be a quick and painful thing." He dropped his hand to his side. "Her death now would be a shame to both you and myself. You see, I want something that only you can give me." He looked down at Winry, "it's just a shame that she has to die. But it's for such a good cause. In time Mr. Elric, you will come to understand."

He glared back at her husband, all humanity leaving his soul.

"So it's time to pick now Edward Elric. You transmute that circle or both her and I are dead for nothing."

Edwards's eyes shifted to both Samil and Winry.

"1"

He gulped and dropped to his knees.

"2"

The clap of his hands echoed in the cobblestone room.

"3 Mr. Edward."

Quickly he slapped his hands against the ground, his breath hitching.

Nothing happened.

Samil's face contorted in rage, his fist squeezing the knifes hilt in anger.

"You son of a-!"

He was cut off by a blast of bright light, the room engulfing in blue and the edges of Winry's consciousness ebbing.

It seemed as if she were suddenly on a different plain, her heart no longer thudding in her chest, but a lulling beat that had her eyes closing.

"WINRY!"

**OoOoOo**

At first she didn't know what was going on. Her head was buzzing and she felt like she was floating.

Slowly she peaked her eyes open, being met with bright shining suns that she would know anywhere.

"Edward?"

A smile broke his face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her seriously, the soft look sending tingles through her body.

It was then that she realized what she was feeling.

And it was odd.

"Actually," she muttered in confusion, "I feel perfectly fine."

She reached her hand to her chest, feeling where she knew Samil had stabbed her, only to be met with a punctured shirt and smooth flesh.

"What the hell?" She gasped, her eyes darting to her arms to see not even a scratch on them.

"Edward, what is going on, I was stabbed, and sliced! Why am I okay?"

The corners of Edwards eyes tightened at the mention of her torture. If he hadn't already decimated Samil he would bring him back and do it all over again.

"It's alchemy love." He told her simply.

"Alchemy? But you're not able to transmute anything! I don't understand."

Suddenly a smirk lit his face.

"Ah, you're lucky your husband is such a great and smart guy. I had a feeling that something a little more sinister would be going on and I had a hunch that someone might be hurt." He smiled at her brightly. "So I called Al and Mei. After that it was easy. We amped Mei up with a philosopher stone and nuked you back to health."

Winry barked out a breath of disbelief laughter.

They had seriously done it.

"What about Sara?" She asked quickly.

"I'm sorry love, but I had to get her before you. It's the Daddy code. She's fine, but worried sick."

Winry smiled happily.

"We really did it." She mumbled, burying her face into her husband's shirt.

"I was scared."

Edwards grip on her tightened, his face pulling taunt.

"I won't let anything like that happen ever again." He swore.

"I know." Winry said with a smile, her heart fluttering with happiness.

She was going to go home, and she was going to be safe. With her family all intact. They would have to overcome some fright now, but she knew that they would be okay.

They were Elrics after all.

**OoOoOo**

**Okay! So Ill have my edited version out soon but I got too excited and had to post this . Thanks to all the peeps still reading this! **


	14. 14 Growing Pains

Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

A.N. A series of dabbles, enjoy!

**Chapter Fourteen: Growing Pains**

**OoOoOo**

She had missed so much that had happened in his life. The only reason she even knew of some of the trips and adventures he had been on had come from his own mouth. There were so many things he hadn't told her and never planned to, and that guilt that bubbled in his heart when he thought of how much she had missed was something he frequently put a damper on. It was unfair of him to keep so many things from her, but some he couldn't even bring to tell her.

So this feeling was an unfamiliar one.

He knew that he kept a lot from her. He knew he grew up a lot without her. He knew his life into adulthood was done without her.

For some reason though he had never thought of the things she did without him.

How she grew up without him. How she ventured into her own person. What she hadn't told him.

This place though-these people in this place-were glaring evidence that no, she didn't halt her life for him. Like he had pushed her too, she had grown up. Without him. In this place that so many different people knew her by. Smiles and shines in stranger's eyes to him and old friends to her.

It was a discontenting feeling.

Selfishly he had never stopped to ask her what she had been through, where she had lived, who she had seen and what she had been through.

This town was a hot and dry one. Sand found its way into all his nooks and crannies. Sun kissed people walked around in a similar state of disarray he commonly found Winry in while she was wrist deep in grease and new gear cogs.

The room he was staying in was surprisingly quiet given how loud the entire city seemed to be. After a good hour of just standing in the streets with Winry while she greeted practically everyone they had finally settled in their room. Much to his great annoyance. The strange sandy town and afternoon sun placed an amber glow in the room, the small dust particles floating lazily in the air. This whole town was sandy it seemed.

Edward huffed under his breath, his brows drawn down in annoyance. "If I knew that this was going to be a safe social call I would have gone west."

Winry looked up from the parcel she had sitting in her lap.

"You know that I didn't ask you to come with my Edward." She said smoothly, staring blankly at the upset man.

"Well s'cuse me. Here I was thinking you might get mobbed."

Winry stood smoothly, the package clutched tightly in her arms. "Edward, I lived here. I think I'm fine. Besides, Rush Valley protects its own."

He could feel a headache coming on.

Ever since she had received some telegram from someone here in Rush she had been talking about nothing but Rush Valley. Yet at the same time he had heard nothing real about Rush Valley.

It was that discontenting feeling again.

She had lived in Rush Valley. Grown as an adult in Rush Valley, made who knows how many friends in Rush Valley, and still Edward had heard nothing of _her _adventures in Rush. It was always a small story here or a broken automail arm there—never a _Winry _story. If Edward were being honest with himself he would be willing to admit that alone was one of the main reasons he had tagged along with her.

To see what she wasn't telling him. To see the life she had left behind here to take up her wait again for him in Resembool.

So far he didn't like what he was seeing.

Winry turned from the brooding alchemist and turned towards the door, tucking a lock of hair behind her hair apprehensively.

"I'm going to go deliver this package tonight and we can leave tomorrow morning." She mumbled under her breath, not looking at him.

"I'll go with you." Edward huffed, rising to his feet.

"No, that's fine, I don't need you to." Winry rushed quickly, holding her hand out to stop his approach.

Edward furrowed his brow.

"Why don't you want me to go with you?" He asked suspiciously.

Winry laughed—abet fake—and tucked the same piece of hair behind her ear.

"It's just a quick delivery. You don't need to go with me."

"Why?" Edward pressed again; his voice steel on Winry's frayed nerves.

Winry threw her free arm in the air, groaning loudly in defeat. "_Fine _Edward! You can come with me. Just don't piss any one off."

"Psht, when do I ever piss anyone off?!" He demanded testily.

"You piss ME off all the time! You walk around with the biggest attitude!" Winry yelled back, her blue eyes finally taking on a shine that he was used to dealing with—anger. He was sick of seeing longing and remembrance in her eyes. Especially in some shit-hole town he knew nothing about.

"Why wouldn't my attitude be big?!"

"Edward! Please I just need to deliver this stupid package!" Winry yelled back. She didn't want to go on his napoleon tirade yet.

Edward gestured towards the door, mockingly bowing towards her. "After you!"

With a roll of her eyes and sneer at the obnoxious man Winry turned on her heal and stomped down the hall, missing the way silted amber eyes followed her body like a hawk.

Edward didn't care what happened in Rush Valley.

Winry Rockbell was his, and any past memory or growing up would stay just that.

A memory.

And he'd do whatever it took to ensure that it stayed that way.

**OoOoOo**

**Edward was feeling possessive this evening! Who knoooows what Winry **_**really **_**went through those days in Rush ;) She is a crafty lady. A short something but just know I'm alive! :D Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. **


	15. 15 Body Modifications

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

**A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!**

**Chapter Fifteen: Body Modifications**

**A very special thank you to my Beta as well! ZilSepam! Couldn't have had this out so great without her. **

**OoOoOo**

"What is that?"

The standoff between daughter and father was on.

Winry glanced anxiously between the two hard-headed Elric's. She had lived with Edward long enough to know that the particular tone he was using in his voice was not one that bartered much room for argument.

An agitated huff met his question with a stiff answer.

"It's nothing."

The line between her husband's brows tightened minutely.

"Huh," he huffed under his breath. "That's funny Sarah, because it doesn't look like _'nothing'_." His face contorted to a sneer at the end of his proclamation, the line of his shoulders tightening.

A fight was about to break out, and if it was anything by the looks of it, it was going to be a serious one.

"Edward," Winry said in the most soothing voice she could muster. She stepped up to him and placed a tentative hand on his arm. He rolled his shoulder back, pushing her soft hand off and effectively raising the pressure in the room.

Unfortunately for Edward—or Winry, depending on how you viewed the case—Sarah had inherited her father's stubborn and hard-headed attitude. With the turning of her eighteenth, it seemed as if it was a trait that was not only here to stay, but one that would grow stronger with age.

Sarah, ever the Elric she claimed in her surname, stood taller, jutting her chest out with pride and indignation.

"It's a tattoo, Father. Surely your old age doesn't hinder you comprehension of the concept." She retorted sarcastically, arching a fine blonde eyebrow.

The air around Edward seemed to drop by about ten degrees.

"Trust me, _Daughter_. I know what a tattoo is. However, I'm failing to understand what it's doing on your body." He sneered.

An outsider would cower in submission. However, the Elric family was one that fueled on high tension and yelling matches.

"Well, _clearly_, I paid someone to put it there." Sarah snipped, her posture turning defensive.

Winry knew that anything from here on out was going to be said only in the heat of anger, and if she didn't step in soon feelings on both ends would be hurt—and quickly.

"Okay, you two. That's enough." Winry commented, standing quickly between her husband and child.

She always hated when she had to be the mediator. It was one thing that she and Edward always tried to prevent throughout their marriage with the kids, and when she had to intervene she always felt like she was betraying one of her own.

"Winry," Edward threatened quietly. Though it seemed like he was merely calling her name, both her and the kids knew that it was a silent threat to stay out of the fight that was about to unfold.

"What, Dad? You don't like it? Well I'm sorry, but that's too bad. It's a little late for that."

Winry closed her eyes at her daughter's statement. She knew that she was only trying to defend her own pride—part of her knowing that Sarah secretly wished that her father would approve. What daughter didn't want her dad to love her through every self-body modification she went through? Even if she later felt like it was a bad idea.

Edward brushed passed Winry quickly and grabbed Sarah by the wrist, ignoring her grimace of discomfort and bringing her marked flesh closer to his face for inspection.

"Maybe if you asked for my permission first, we wouldn't be in this predicament." He sneered slowly.

Sarah smiled at her dad, though Winry could see that there was no happiness in the act.

She shrugged lightly. "They always say that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

Roughly, Edward pushed her wrist away. He stared her hard in the eye before brushing past her and heading for the stairs.

"Edward," Winry called helplessly, hoping that for once in his life he would turn around and confront the mess that he had just made with his family, praying that he had not made a rift that could not be repaired.

"I want her out of my house by the end of the day." Edward said casually over his shoulder, ignoring the stunned silence that followed his statement.

Winry gaped at the back of his head while he walked casually up the stairs, seeming to be in no level of distress.

She quickly turned to her equally stunned daughter and son.

She placed a hand softly on Sarah's shoulder, panic beginning to set into her stomach. Sarah had just as bad a temper as Edward did.

"Sarah honey, just give him a second to calm down. I'll go talk to him." She quickly attempted to console.

It was as if her daughter had suddenly been slapped. She sneered at the empty space her father had previously occupied, shrugging her mother's comforting hand off her shoulder.

"No! I'm sick of dealing with him! If he wants me out so bad, then fine! I'm out." She immediately moved in the same direction up the stairs. She avoided looking at the closed door her brooding father was stashed away in and went to her own room, throwing drawers open and stuffing odds and ends into an overnight bag.

Eddie and Winry stared with equal looks of disbelief at the train wreck that happened right before their eyes.

"Mom?" Eddie questioned softly, turning shocked eyes to his paling mother.

The moment she registered her son's voice, Winry snapped into action. She tore up the stairs and met her furious daughter half way out of her room.

"Sarah honey, you need to calm down! There is no reason for this to get so out of hand, just calm dow—"

"No, Mother!" She interrupted quickly. "I'm so sick of this! If he wants to ruin his family over something as petty as this, then fine! I'm too old to let some asshole treat me like that!"

"Sarah Elric! That asshole is still your father!" Winry yelled.

Sarah pushed past her mother quickly, stomping down the hallway.

"I don't know how you can stand being married to a heel like him—hell, Mother- he's even been treating you like shit!" She called over her shoulder, and quickly departed from her childhood home.

It was as if someone had slammed a fast and furious fist into Winry's gut. She stood in that suddenly quiet hallway for a brief second, hearing Eddie softly call his sister's name as she walked passed him.

In that swift moment, Winry decided that she was finished playing the pacifist role. She stormed towards her husband's hiding spot and slammed the door open, paying no heed to the solid whack it made against the wall in protest. She could feel the heat of anger flaming her face and her shoulders tensing in anticipation.

Edward briefly glanced up at her before returning his eyes indifferently to his book.

Winry clenched her fist in an attempt to not punch him in the back of his head.

He would at least have the decency of seeing it coming. She didn't want him to have any doubt who dealt it.

"Edward Elric," she began between clenched teeth, "you better get off your ass and go get my daughter back in my home."

She watched through a red haze as he looked up at her again from his book, delicately placing a book mark in its place and softly closing the cover.

He leaned back in his chair and stared up at her quietly.

"I think she's made her decision."

The red haze turned black.

Grabbing the placid man by his collar she yanked him off his chair, bringing him nose to nose with her, shooting threats of death and bodily harm into his soul.

"I don't give a _fuck_ what she decided! She's your _daughter_ and you _will_ bring her home, or you won't have a place here to call home!"

Though she could see the fire igniting in his own eyes she was too far over the edge to care.

"You will fix the wrong that you've managed to spin this family into, and you will do it _now_! Whatever bug has crawled into your ass over these last few months needs to find its way out!" She dropped him as quickly as she had grabbed him and spun on her heal, leaving the stunned man to watch her anger ripple like a wake around her. Before she got to the doorway she whirled around, grabbing her wrench from the side table and stomping back towards him. Immediately a pang of fear entered Edward.

"Winry!" He shouted quickly, holding his hand up in a meek surrender.

She reeled her hand back, bringing the wrench down with a furry unlike any she had felt in a long time, the fire in her eyes locking onto her target. Edward watched in a disbelieving out of body experience as his wife took action, not on him per say, but rather on the metal leg she babied as badly as she did her own children. He heard a loud bang followed by a tremor that raced along his stub and into his body. A moment later he heard the unmistakable sound of snapping gears, shorting wires, and tension of the ball bearing threatening to give under his weight. It was a sound that he hadn't heard since his adventures with Al, but one that he would never soon forget. With stunned eyes he look down, disbelieving at the extent of damage she had inflicted, the wrench still wedge tightly in the metal appendage.

"Wha-?!"

"Just a reminder, _Edward_." She sneered. "While you may think you don't need anyone, good luck getting _that_ fixed." She pointed at the deteriorating leg menacingly. No one with two connecting brain cells would dare touch a piece of automail that had been constructed by her. Her name was well renowned through the automail community and only a fool would touch her pieces.

Edward knew as much.

"Winry"

"Shut it, Edward! Your words are cheap." With that she spun and walked out of their bedroom, leaving a stunned alchemist behind her and an equally stunned son at the base of the staircase.

"Eddie, I'm thinking I need to go out for some fresh air, do you wish to accompany your mother?" With a dumbfound expression he nodded quickly. He would be her bar stool if she so asked it of him at that moment. He had thought that his mother had lost her menacing anger as she grew older, apparently not, and if the look of his father's face was any indication he had assumed as much as well.

"Um. Where to, Mom?" He asked nervously.

She smiled brightly at Eddie, acting as if the world was made of sun shine and bunnies.

He heard himself gulp nervously.

"Where ever the wind takes us!"

With nervous eyes, Eddie followed his mother out the door, peaking briefly up the stairs at his stunned father.

He hoped for everyone that his dad could fix this mess.

His mother scared the crap out of him.

**OoOoOo**

With Eddie and Winry out of the now empty house it was quiet to Edward.

Too quiet.

Even the insects and creaky wood were too scared to make a sound in the wake that was Winry.

Edward didn't know how long he stood there in that spot, the aftershock of 'Hurricane Winry' still wracking his brain.

Slowly he shifted his weight, hearing his leg threaten him with total decomposition at any sudden or wrong movements.

"Shit." He mumbled under his breath, looking down at the scrap metal and attempting to get a closer look at the damage. He knew that he had crossed the line, and if the guilt mounting on his shoulders was any indication, he also knew that this time he wasn't too sure how to fix it. The wrench jutting out of his leg was like a knife in his gut. For Winry to do something so drastic too…he knew there was a lot of feelings he had hurt and a lot of apologizing he had to do.

"What the fuck is the matter with me?" He spoke into the silence, dragging a heavy hand over his face.

_'I don't even know where to start to fix this._' He inspected the finer damage along the internal aspects of his automail. _'Or how_.'

With a sigh he plopped down onto his butt, grabbing some random wires and straitening his shoulders.

He had to have _some_ mobility in his leg if he was going to go catch anyone.

**OoOoOo**

He found her in the spot she always ran to when things went off the handle.

"Your pants are probably getting wet." He called to her still figure. She was hunched over her legs, clutching them and starring hard at the stone in front of her. She made no attempt to respond.

Hobbling as quietly as he could, Edward crutched his way to Sarah and plopped loudly beside her. The silence that drew after that was loud and clear. Neither one wanted to be the first one to make the move. Edward was willing to admit that he had probably over reacted.

It was just hard to suddenly see how _old_ he was turning, to see his kids so grown up.

With an exhausted sigh, Edward leaned back on his hands. He rolled his head back and stared into the vast expansion of stars.

"You know, they always say that asking for forgiveness is easier than permission, but I've never believed that." He finally said. Once the silence was broken, he could hear her shift beside him.

"It's something I've never been good at. But I'm willing to be a man enough to admit that I should, uh, ask for it." Edward mumbled, still feeling like he shouldn't be the one asking for permission.

The silence that followed was still a thick one.

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you like that." He told her, finally looking at his rejected daughter. She continued to stare at the grave marker in front of her, though her eyes were unseeing.

"I know that I'm going to do things that you don't like, but it's my body and my choice." Sarah finally spoke after a stretch.

Edward clucked his tongue at her and stared hard at her profile.

"Sarah, I'm your father. I'm going to hate anything that you do to your body. But you know I'll always love you, your mother and this family." He told the temperamental teenager.

The breeze was chilled that night. The grass slightly wet from the showers earlier that day, and Edward knew that his butt was going to be muddy. Oh, the things he would do for his kids. They simply had no idea, and it was hard to admit that they didn't need him as much as they used to.

"You don't have to move out, but know I don't approve of this," he gestured towards her wrist, "but I love you none the less."

For the first time, Sarah turned and looked at him. Her dismal expression quickly turned to one of amusement.

"Huh. Looks like you made Mom pretty mad there, Dad." She nodded towards his broken leg with a small smile.

Rubbing the back of his head, Edward chuckled softly and looked towards the now empty house.

"Yeah. Your mom still has a hell of a temper." He huffed under his breath.

There was silence again, him staring and the house and her staring at the busted automail.

"You know Dad, just because I can do things on my own doesn't mean that I don't need you."

Edward swallowed softly, still looking at the small house on the top of that damn hill. The knot in his throat was tight and sudden. It was unlike him.

"Yeah I know, you brat." He muttered affectionately, leaning over and nudging her shoulder.

"Now, let me get a better look at that…" He trailed off with a dramatic look of disgust, though his voice now had a teasing note to it, "..Tattoo."

Beaming at her father, Sarah jutted her wrist out, letting him take it and look closer to the winding lines and hard edges.

"Really? You had to get this?" Edward deadpanned, dropping her wrist and arching a brow at her.

"What! It's something to be proud of!" Sarah exclaimed, pulling her wrist close to her chest, her cheeks lighting up in bashful embarrassment. "You went around with it on your back for years, what's the difference with it on my wrist?"

Edward huffed. "I don't need any boys using you to get to me. And that's _my_ sign!"

Sarah threw her head back with a laugh. "Oh please, Dad!"

Edward chuckled and stood slowly onto his wobbly leg, disgruntledly letting his laughing daughter help him up due to his sudden handicap. With the arm slung around her shoulder he squeezed, leaning over and kissing the top of her head.

"Next time I'll just print you a tee-shirt of what you want." He continued to tease, stumbling with a laugh as she shoved his arm off her shoulder.

"Whatever, Dad." was her retreating retort, her blonde hair swinging in the soft breeze its trail bobbing towards the house.

Edward paused to look back at the tomb that rested his own parents.

With a soft smile he continued slowly to the house.

**OoOoOo**

"Did you see what Sarah's tattoo actually was?" Edward asked later that night, curled around a wife that took a bit longer to calm down than his daughter.

"Yeah I did. It was sweet, and looks pretty if you ask me." Winry told him, looking up at his smug face and rolling her eyes.

"What?" She asked, no longer able to look at that face.

"I was thinking of getting the same thing somewhere."

Winry raised a surprised brow, "Really? Where?"

With a smirk Edward rolled over her, bringing his mouth close to her ear.

"Well I was thinking about getting it on my—"

A resounding slap could be heard followed by gruff laughter as Winry glared up at her husband, her hand planted firmly over his mouth.

"Shut it, you." She threatened, lowering her hand.

"What, you don't want to see it grow? You know, like I did." He playfully added, nipping her retreating fingers.

"Edward Elric!" Winry laughed, slapping him on the chest again.

Edward leaned down and stole her lips, smiling when he came up for air.

"I love you" he told her softly.

With glowing eyes Winry smiled softly.

"I know."

**OoOoOo**

_**ZilSepam**_ is the greatest Beta ever and this wouldn't be out so timely without her! Such lovely reviews too! Next chapter next week! (it's done and being edited)

Its fluff too, so well get off this angry stuff.


	16. 16 Bottles

Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.

A.N. A series of dabbles, enjoy!

**Chapter Sixteen: Bottles**

**A Super special thanks to my Beta ZilSepam guys! Go check her stuff out its great!**

**OoOoOo**

Winry woke with a jolt. The bedsheets flew off her body and the pillow fell to the floor with a solid thump, making her heart hammer loudly in her chest. Disorientation clouded her bleary eyes. With a start, she brought her hand up to rub away the sleep and confusion from her vision. Something had woken her up, she just couldn't figure out what.

She started to mentally berate herself, and quickly she started a check list in her brain, trying to figure out why she had woken up in such a state.

The sun was just starting to peak into her room. It filled the room with a soft glow, waking up not only her, but the early-to-rise birds outside her window. Their babies chirped in the nest, begging to be fed.

With a huff and roll of her eye, Winry fell back into the bed.

The baby.

For a second she had forgotten she had one.

With a shake of her head she stared at the ceiling, smiling to herself at her own panic.

It was the first time she had slept through the night since having little Eddie, and apparently her subconscious wasn't used to it.

Groaning, Winry rolled to Edwards's side of the bed, only to find that it was empty. She sat up once more, neither hearing nor seeing anything that would indicate where her little Alchemist had gone.

'_Winry you better not even let him hear you think little._' She thought to herself with a small laugh.

Even after growing a clear five inches taller than her, he was still so insecure about his height.

"Lord forbid, Eddie grows up to be taller than him." she muttered under her breath as she rolled out from the bed.

If Edward was up and the baby was still sleeping, then maybe—just maybe—she could have some time to herself.

There was a new automail piece she was working on, and ever since Eddie had entered her life, she hadn't had a chance to touch a wrench.

Except, of course, for the occasional disciplinary actions required on her unruly husband.

Standing fully from the bed, Winry stretched towards the sky as far as she could. She reveled in the satisfying pops and creaks that spread throughout her body. It seemed like it had been so long since she had gotten a full eight hours of sleep, when in reality it had only been a month or so. Having a baby was more tiring than she was willing to admit.

'_I thought that I would be so good at it._' She thought to herself, a small frown worked its way onto her face.

For the past month all Winry had even felt was failure. It seemed she could never make Eddie stop crying, or fall asleep when he needed to, or even _eat_. In the small recess of her mind, she admitted to herself that she felt a bit like a failure. What kind of mother couldn't please her child? What mother couldn't make an unhappy baby happy?

'_I must be doing something wrong_.' she thought to herself as she shuffled to her closet, pulling on a pair of her ratty capris. The only way to turn her depressing thoughts better would be in the solitude of motor oil.

Somehow, Winry's thought of what motherhood was going to be like was drastically different than what it was actually like.

'_Here I was thinking it would be Edward who would find a hard time adapting to Eddie._' She thought as she walked out of her room and down the cold wooden stairs.

Edward.

He had proven to be a better parent when dealing with Eddie than she had ever thought imaginable.

Where she would groan and drag her feet, he would hop up and help. It was endearing, and a small part of her was jealous of how easily he took to taking care of the new life so suddenly.

It wasn't fair really.

The sound of voices talking in the kitchen caused her to lighten her steps. She hadn't expected visitors so early in the morning.

'_Maybe its Al back from Xing._' She thought as she tip toed to the door, pushing it silently open and peering into the dining area.

The sight before her immediately warmed her heart, and a content smile spread on her face.

The 'voices' in question turned out to be only one: Edward. He sat hunched forward in the wooden chairs that had been with the house since her parents had been alive, a small bottle in his hand with a tightly swathed baby noisily eating.

If Winry were any less of a person she would have squealed loudly, effectively ruining the sugary sweet moment and creating a distressed baby.

She was happy to note that she was just _barely_ not that person.

Quietly, she threw a hand to her mouth, a massive smile breaking out and a pitch that should never be heard by human ears getting trapped in her throat.

Edward bounced the baby softly in his arms, muttering things she could just barely make out and causing her heart to swell.

"See, I knew you really were hungry." He muttered just loud enough for her to hear. "Your mom was so excited for you and now all you're doing in causing her so much grief."

Winry took her hand from her mouth and rested it on her hip, a happy smile gracing her lips.

Edward leaned down and kissed the baby on the forehead.

"Good job, Kid. Keep it up. Pay back for all the stuff she put me through." He proclaimed with a jutted out chest and cocky chuckle.

"Excuse me?!" Winry demanded from the door way, making herself known to the man.

Edward looked up quickly, a nervous smile springing onto his face.

"Winry! I didn't see you there!"

The seething woman took a menacing step forward, the wrench—where she got these from he had long since stopped asking—raising threateningly in the air.

"You think this is funny, Edward?! How tired and stressed I am all the time?!" She yelled at the cowering man.

"Winry, I have a baby!" Edward defended, thrusting the baby forward and causing the bottle to snap out of his mouth with an audible pop.

Immediately, Eddie began wailing. The sound was horrible, cutting right to the bone.

"Good! Now you have an upset baby!" Winry yelled, spinning on her heal and exiting the room with an exaggerated huff. The sound of the basement door slamming echoed moments later through the room.

Edward gulped nervously, feeling the sweat trickle down his back at the near death he had almost experienced.

"That was a close one." He told the fretting child in his arms, watching at Eddie's face turned red from anger, his voice carrying to levels that even Edward found uncomfortable to bare.

"Now, now." he soothed, bringing the bottle back to Eddie's mouth and rocking him softly, "There's no need for that. Though you did just give me an excuse to finally give that woman a break." He told him tenderly, watching closely as Eddie angrily took the bottle, glaring from his bundle at the man who had disrupted his meal.

"You should take it easy, Kid. I don't think this house can stand another temper," he laughed to himself. With tear spiked lashes, Eddie glared at the man speaking in a smooth, baritone voice.

Edward watched in silence as Eddie greedily sucked the remaining formula up, his spiteful little glare never leaving his face. With a chuckle he placed the baby on his shoulder, softly burping the little guy.

"I can tell that you and I are going to get along just fine." he told his progeny. "I can teach you all about alchemy, you'll be the best—well, second best to me of course—but you'll have everything you've ever wanted in life."

A loud burp met his statement.

Edward chuckled and pulled Eddie down, staring into gold eyes identical to his.

"You're one loved kid," he told him with a small stroke of his cheek. Eddie stared wide at Edward before breaking out into a huge grin, the smile turning the deep gears in his father's heart.

Bringing a calloused finger to his cheek, Edward watched as he stroked the innocent skin of his son's face.

"You're one loved kid." He told him again. "You'll be great at Alchemy. Hell, you'd be a great chimney sweep." He spoke to the child with an undying smile. His chest filled with a sense of pride unlike any he had ever felt before.

"You're one lucky kid." he muttered, the grin on his son's face mirrored his own. "You have a great mother and I promise to not be like my father. I'll be there for you. I won't leave this family." He finished softly, leaning down and kissing the small forehead of his son.

The sound of tools being slammed down brought a cocky smirk to Edwards's mouth.

"And take it easy on your mom, Squirt."

**OoOoOo**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter and my super awesome Beta ZilSepam, go check her stories out too if you're an EdxWin lover! **


	17. 17 Haircuts

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

**A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!**

**Chapter Seventeen: Hair Cuts**

**OoOoOo**

"Eddie, hold still!" Winry huffed as she repositioned her squirming son's head.

Again.

"But I don't want my hair cut!" He whined despairingly, hunching his shoulders and sinking further into his seat.

Winry blew the bangs from her eyes, palming the sheers she had to her son's hair and stared sternly at the prudent child.

"Ed, your hair is too long." She told the upset child, trying to reason with him. It would do her no good in the future if he were still so stubborn about his tresses.

Eddie sighed dramatically and hunched his shoulders inward, simultaneously blowing the said locks out of his own eyes. The boy was sitting (at least as close to 'sitting' as Winry could call it) in the middle of the small outside shed, the large door was open, allowing a breeze to blow through for all to enjoy. The birds were chirping, the flowers dancing, and little Sarah with a much older Den were tumbling around on the grass.

"Mommy, I wanna go play with Sarah and Den." Eddie whined again for the umpteenth time. Stepping up again behind the boy, Winry straightened his head and brought the scissors up.

"Sweetie, you can go back out and play as soon as I'm done cutting your hair." She tried to pacify. A begrudging whine was her only answer, though Winry knew she had won a few more moments of his placidity.

With the quick deftness that only being a mother could create, she clipped the bangs from his eyes and trimmed nimbly along his shoulders.

"Mommy." he spoke again, causing Winry to pull the sheers away from his head once more. "Why can't I keep my hair long like Daddy's?" His question was followed with a quick turn of his head, making Winry glad the scissors were no longer near his face.

She rolled her eyes at her son's question. He asked her this every time she forced him to cut his hair. "Because I know Daddy takes care of his own hair. Just like I _know_ you won't take care of yours." It was the same answer she gave him every time. And with the same answer, he responded—as always—in the same fashion.

"Nuh-uh!" He vehemently denied, his little face scrunching into hurt anger. "I keep my hair clean! I take care of it."

Winry deadpanned her son before reaching out and quickly plucking a hair. Ever with the dramatics Eddie yelled his protest, slapping both hands on the tender strand she pulled from his head.

"And what's this?" She questioned, holding the golden strand out for him to have a closer look at.

"Wha?! It's nothing!" Eddie denied, trying to reach out quickly and snatch it from his mother.

Winry pulled away from her son, flicking the stand away from him. "Its broken and has dirt on it. I wouldn't call that taking care of your hair, Eddie."

He spitefully stared at his mother before huffing defiantly, and with a cross of his arms he flipped back into his seat.

"It wasn't broken until you pulled it out." He complained under his breath.

"It doesn't work like that, Eddie." Winry told the pouting child.

"And even Daddy has a hard time always taking care of his hair." She said after a moment.

Eddie looked over his shoulder in confusion. "But its always braided, Mommy."

Winry smiled, "Mommy braids it, so that when I finally catch him off guard I can cut it all off." The look of horror on his face was priceless, and something she'd always remember as he reached over his shoulder, feeling the short fringe on his neck thoughtfully.

"I don't want any more off." He whimpered, starring with big eyes at his mother.

"Eddie," Winry threatened silently, switching the sheers out for a daunting pair of clippers from her make-shift table. She pushed his head forward, flipping the switch on and feeling him tense from the noise.

"Be still." she warned firmly, ignoring his pathetic pleas of 'no' and 'stop'. As she descended on the problem locks with the clippers, said machine suddenly sputtered and stopped, a loud popping echoing in the small room.

Winry stared in shock at the clippers before following the cord, a vein pulsing in her temple at the source of the machine's malfunction.

"Edward!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

The room was silent, followed quickly by loud thumping and a panicked Edward, looking disheveled, staring back and forth at his wife and son.

"What's wrong? Is everything okay?" He asked quickly, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes.

Winry angrily pointed at the cord, causing Edward to stop his ramblings in bemused confusion.

"You'd better _fix _that." Winry seethed angrily—the '_that'_ being his three year old daughter. In her mouth she slobbered on the cord, or rather the contorted shape of what was once the machine; the floor ripped up and splayed out around her.

A clear sign of alchemy.

Edward stared in amazement before breaking out into a huge smile.

"No!" Winry snapped, bringing his attention back to her. "This is _NOT _a good thing! Don't you dare get any ideas!"

She took a menacing step forward, missing Eddie's movement as he slinked out of the chair and darted outside, happy for any distraction that would get him out of cutting his hair.

Winry pointed at the child who was happily putting the blob of cord and concrete into her mouth, darting her eyes from Winry to Edward, completely unaware of the sudden tension in the room.

Edward smiled hesitantly at his wife, a little confused.

"Winry what's the big deal?" He asked softly, smiling as Sarah called his name and held her mass of misdirected alchemy at him. Winry watched stiffly with barely controlled anger as he walked over to the little girl and sat down beside her, taking what was once the cord from her mouth and telling her to go play. Happy to oblige anything her daddy would tell her to do, Sarah stood shakily to her feet and skipped off towards her hiding brother.

"The _big deal _is that my daughter will not be going on some adventure of death just because she can do alchemy!" Winry yelled, stomping her foot childishly and balling her fist. Angrily, she chucked the clippers and Edward, ignoring his yelp as he narrowly dodged the projectile.

Jumping to his feet, Edward took a step towards his fuming wife, his hands held up in meek surrender.

"Winry, don't you think you're over reacting a bit?" He asked quickly, taking another step towards her.

Slitted blue eyes glared at him, her arms crossed tightly against her chest.

"She's three! And she's in a very loving and attentive house. I don't think she's going to be running to Central any time soon." He told her, taking the final step towards her and engulfing her into his arms.

"There's no reason to freak out." He tried to sooth, praying she wouldn't smack him on the head with that damn wrench.

He felt her stiff body slowly relax, causing his own body to do the same.

He felt like he had just walked away from a close call.

"I guess you're right." She muttered into his chest, feeling the panic at the sudden display of Sarah's Alchemy dissipate. It was irrational of her to think that the same thing would happen to her own children which had happened to Al and Edward, but it was still a scary thought that loomed over her late at night.

Apparently, while she was cutting hair too.

Really just any time someone mentioned Alchemy.

Had she mentioned that Alchemy made her nervous?

Edward rubbed her back and stepped back, looking down and into murky blue eyes. "I should probably help train her." He muttered, feeling ice prickle his heart at the look she shot him. "Or I can wait." He corrected quickly, taking a step away from the woman and out of immediate reach.

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You know, I think there was something broken in the house I needed to fix!"

"Like what?" Winry demanded.

"Um, there was this, oh the bookshelf! Ugh, its loose, can't have my books all over the floor." He shakily explained, darting for the door and quickly making his exit.

Winry shook her head and turned on her heal.

"Well Eddie, let finish that c—"She glanced to the left and right quickly, realizing she was the only one in the shed.

"Edward!"

**OoOoOo**

"Why do you always cut his hair so short?" Edward complained later that night, his damp body leaning against the back of their shared bed. Winry sat perched behind him, running the brush languidly through his hair.

"Because it's a hassle to keep up with." She told him, placing her brush down and dividing the hair into three chunks. "It's always getting tangled, too, if you don't pull it back." She muttered after a minute, her hands working deftly through the pattern of braiding she had become accustomed to.

Edward stood up quickly, knocking her hands from his hair and pushing her against the bed. He loomed hungrily over her, the braid coming loose and falling across his shoulders. "Are we talking about my hair?" He asked her, bringing their faces slowly together.

"Uh...yes." Winry finally managed to breathily get out.

Edward smirked in his cocky 'Full Metal' way.

"That's funny because it was never like that before you." He told her, the smooth baritone of his voice caused chills to dance on her skin.

"What do you mean?" She asked him with a blush.

He smirked with an arrogant lit to his tone.

"Well, I'll show you."

**OoOoOo**

**A huge thanks to my Beta ZilSepam! I hope y'all are checking her stuff out-its just as good as mine (and many would argue better even! :D) thank you for the wonderful reviews-it keeps them coming! **


	18. 18 Beer and Babes

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say.**

**A.N. A series of drabbles, enjoy!**

**Chapter Eighteen: Beers and Babes**

**Beta: ZilSepam :D**

**OoOoOo**

The heat was something of an extreme temperature on this particular sunny day. With everything in the house closed and locked up tighter than the grand secrets in Central, it still managed to burn through the rustic wooding of the house and into the exhausted body of an Elric.

An Edward Elric, in particular.

Edward groaned to himself from his seat in the living room. It was so hot, he was uncomfortable even sitting on the couch. He looked over his shoulder to the tiled floored kitchen and made his mind up. So rarely he had this much free time, and of course it would be hot as hell on his day off. With a grunt, he pushed his heat exhausted body from the couch, padding bare footed into the kitchen and feeling the tension release from his shoulders as his feet encountered the only chilled surface in the house. Purposefully he set towards the refrigerator, smiling to himself as he swung the heavy door open and was greeted by the welcoming kiss of cold on his skin. He reached in quickly, plucking a beer from the shelf and closing the door gloomily.

Winry would have a fit if he let out all the cold air.

He rolled his eyes at the thought. It was too hot for him to care right now.

With a happy sigh and uplift to his shoulders Edward sauntered up to the large oak table and pulled a chair away, plopping heavily with a satisfied smile as the cooler air finally alleviated some of his discomfort. He placed his chilled beer on the table and reached behind his head, grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling it free from his body.

The rewarding chill was well worth it.

He reached back for his drink, looking around to make sure his errant wife wasn't within sight and deftly propped the lip of the drink against the side of the table before bringing the ball of his hand down quickly and hearing the successful pop of an opened bottle. He pulled the drink away, catching the loose lid and brought his face close to the frame, making sure no scuff marks were etched into it. Winry would kill him otherwise.

He couldn't remember how many times he'd been smacked over the side of the head for his little trick, but it was the easier of his two opening methods. Winry usually hated when he used his teeth to open bottles too.

"Can't win with that woman." He muttered to the empty kitchen.

He leisurely sipped his quickly perspiring beverage, checking the clock hanging above him periodically. The kids would be home from school soon and then it would be the evening routine of homework, dinner, bed and hopefully a cooler freaking day in the morning.

Two beers later and feeling warmer than he wanted to Edward heard the front door open, followed by the soft pitter patter of his kids feet. Sarah ran by him quickly, pig tails streaking behind her with her laughter and a quick 'hi daddy' as she ran to her room.

"Homework first!" Edward called after her retreating back, knowing that she was rushing straight for the deformed toys she transmuted constantly and had probably been thinking about all day.

The scrapping of a chair against floor brought Edwards attention to his much gloomier son. He watched with his beer half raised to his mouth and brow cocked as his son huffed dejectedly, long and hard, before he slumped his shoulders and let his bag fall to the floor with a solid crash. Edward started as a second later said son slammed his head face first into the sturdy table, a deafening thump echoing in the room.

"Edward, what the hell?!" He exclaimed, slamming his beer down and reaching across the table for his son. Before he could grab his head Eddie's hand slapped his father's away.

"Leave me be." He declared dramatically, his voice muffled against the oak.

Edward rolled his eyes. "It's not that serious." He muttered to his melodramatic son, wondering who he got the theatrics from.

It wasn't him, that's for sure.

"It is serious!" Eddie yelled suddenly, slamming clenched fists against the table and glaring at his Dad.

Edward lifted a single eyebrow before standing and making his way to the cupboard. He pulled out a smaller glass and filled it quickly with milk before returning to the glowering boy.

"Well, why don't you tell me why it's so serious." He said evenly, placing the cup softly before the boy.

Eddie starred at the glass for a moment before picking it up and slamming it back in one gulp. He set it down more gently than he picked it up and stared unseeingly at the murky glass.

Edward furrowed his brow, becoming a little more concerned for his kid.

A quiet moment passed before a dejected Eddie sighed. "I was rejected."

"Ahhh." Edward hummed in understanding. He reached over purposefully and poured beer into the milky glass, watching Eddies eyes light up in wonder as he looked towards his father in astonishment.

It was the first time his father had offered him beer.

With his mouth hanging open and his hand hovering over the now slightly discolored beer he looked to his father for permission, breaking out into a huge smile as Edward tipped the lip of his bottle towards him and took a quick swig of it. It was all the invitation Eddie needed.

Milk residue be damned. This was now a man to man moment.

"So what happened?" Edward asked his son after watching him take his first sip of the beer tentatively.

Eddie sighed and looked away from his father. "It's embarrassing. You wouldn't understand" He mumbled, still feeling the sting of rejection and hurt pride.

Edward scoffed at his son. "What makes you think I wouldn't understand?"

Eddie deadpanned his father before gesturing widely around him. "You got the girl, Dad! Mom said yes! You two have always been together!"

Edward scoffed again, louder this time and glared off into the distance.

"Oh I was rejected, all right." He told him matter-of-factly. "The first girl I declared my love to told me she'd rather marry Alphonse. Alphonse of all people!" He huffed angrily, still ticked even after so many years.

"What?" Eddie gasped in disbelief. "Who was it?"

Edward clenched his teeth and took another swig of his beer, slamming it down harder than necessary on the table. "Some stupid little girl who loved to run around and put her nose in places it didn't belong, and rip hearts out of boys without even knowing it." He seethed to his son, missing the vivid look of awe on Eddie's face.

"Someone rejected you, too?" He wondered aloud.

"Pfff." Edward scoffed in answer.

Eddie took that as a yes.

"Well what did you do?" He asked after a second.

Edward turned and looked him squarely in all seriousness.

"I took back what was mine." He told him. "If I let my hurt pride get in the way of life, I wouldn't have anything to show for it. You have to work hard for the things that are important to you, Eddie."

Eddie looked down at the bubbled climbing along the wall of his glass.

"The question is how important is she to you?" Edward asked after a moment.

It was quiet for a long time and Edward took another sip of his drink. "It helped that later that day I slugged the crap out of Al. That made me feel better."

Eddie ducked his head and tried to stuff the giggle that was trying to escape.

"That's not very nice, Dad." He mumbled with a smile in his voice.

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "All's fair in love and war, Eddie."

A comfortable silence elapsed between the two; Eddie sipping his murky beer and Edward reflecting on the past little girl.

Eddie looked up to his dad with a sudden thought.

"What ever happened to that little girl?" He asked.

"Hello boys!"

Edward looked over his shoulder as his wife walked in the kitchen, her hands full of bags he knew contained new parts and pieces she always complained she needed.

Winry dropped her bags and walked over to Eddie and Edward, kissing her son on the head and ruffling Edward's hair as she walked by.

"Edward, why are you walking around without a shirt?" She asked as she walked towards the living room.

"It was hot." he grumbled.

Winry looked back at him, finding her steps slowing as she fixed on a particular smooth expansion of flesh that bent and stretched in an inviting way. For her tongue of course.

"Um." She stuttered. "How's your di—day"

Edward paused and looked back at his wife, male pride blooming in his chest as he caught her checking him out.

"Oh it was great." He smirked at her.

"Huh." Winry sighed dreamily. "Will you grab my breast- uh, bag! Will you grab my bags!" She stuttered out in embarrassment, feeling her face flame up.

Edward stood slowly, bending down and picking up her bags.

"Like this?" He asked her from his bent position, laughing as she darted out of the kitchen a flustered mess.

"Gross." He heard from behind him and turned to see his son staring at him with a disgusted look on his face.

"What?!" Edward demanded.

Eddie shook his head with a laugh.

"Nothing." He said quickly, grabbing his now empty cup and running it to the sink.

"Thanks for the advice, Dad!" He called over his shoulder as he darted out of the kitchen. Eddie suddenly didn't want to be around his parents.

They were gross when they got all _kissy_.

Edward smirked at his son's retreating back and turned his predatory gaze in the direction his wife had disappeared.

"Time to go catch that little heart breaker." He mumbled with all intent and purpose.

He'd made a point of making her regret rejecting him.

It hadn't happened since.

**OoOoOo**

**A very special thank you to my beta ZilSepam! Her story's are great don't forget to check them out! Thank you for all the beautiful reviews, it makes it worth writing! :D**


	19. 19 Sunny Days

**Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my problem, that's what I always say. **

**A series of drabbles**

**Chapter Nineteen: Sunny Days**

**Beta: ZilSepam—go check her stories out if you love Ed/Win**

**OoOoOo**

"Hurry up Edward! You're always so slow!" Winry yelled from the base of the stairs, cupping a hand to her mouth to maximize her volume. The man would keep the prince of Xing waiting if he could get away with it. Just so happens she wouldn't let him ruin her plans today.

"Edward!" she yelled again, her tone sparking with the beginning of her frustration. She could hear the distinct foot fall of one Edward Elric, as it grew harder across the second story floor. It rattled the old hanging pictures on the walls, and Winry could feel a tick begin in her eye.

A golden head finally popped into view, the look in his eye the usual annoyance she'd come to accept as just his face.

"You're worse than a woman!" She huffed, and placed her hands firmly on her hips, as her eyebrow cocked in frustration.

"Pff," Edward scoffed with an eye roll, and made a dramatic descent down the stairs. "You act like the market is going to go out of business within the next ten minutes." He grumbled as he walked past her and towards the front door, and threw it open with the continued dramatics.

"Shall we?" he asked with a sarcastic bow and hand towards the door.

Winry rolled her eyes at the man, refusing to rise to the bait. Deftly, she walked past the tempered man, grabbing her bag on her way out the door.

"There's a lot that I want to do, Edward, and it's so annoying when you make me late to everything." she complained, after he had locked the house up and began the long walk towards the market. Edward sighed and snatched the woman's angrily clenched hand into his own. Abruptly, Winry snapped her mouth closed, her back straightened almost painfully, and a hot flush rushing across her face.

He still took her by surprise with how easy and open he'd become with signs of affection. Winry feared her fluttering heart would give out one of these days. If even half the valves and clogs in the world worked as hard as her heart had recently, they'd break and bust. The human heart was an amazing piece of machinery, she mused to herself.

Edward, on the other hand, turned his face in an attempt to hide his widening smirk. If he'd known earlier in his life that such innocent touches and words would shut her up he'd have used them on her sooner!

Of course, only a suicidal man would ever admit such a thing to this little firecracker.

The walk to the market was a bit of a long one. Edward knew Winry wanted to leave early primarily to avoid the hottest time period of the day, but damn, did he hate dragging himself out of bed on days as nice as this one. In recent months, he'd finally started to slow his research down and take in the world around him. With Al traveling along the Eastern border with Mei and Winry staying primarily in Resembool, Ed had felt that he needed to start enjoying his time.

He took in a deep breath, and a smile broke on his face as his hand twisted to tangle into Winry's fingers with his. He felt her hand tense as she grasped his palm tightly, and looked over to see her silky strands covering her face; only the red hot tips of her ears peaked at him through the golden curtain. He smiled and shook his head. He'd never seen this dainty little side of Winry, and he liked to see what he could do to make her blush. A deep smirk smoothed its way onto his face.

Ed looked up at the winding road. Of all the places he'd ever been, Resembool was one that always held a beauty none other had. It amazed him that so few people knew of the little farming land just south of East City. The lush greenery spanned almost endlessly, it seemed, with every walk of wildlife roaming freely and unobtrusively. The soft roads wound around the landscape in a way that was almost artistic, with pops of wildflowers and natural creaks.

It was a beautiful place, and to wake up with a gentle sun caressing his cheek it was hard to drag his body out of bed. Edward had never taken the time in his younger years to truly enjoy the experience of a peaceful sleep and an even more peaceful wakefulness. It was something he'd promised himself to never forsake again.

A small croaking wail broke the serenity of the moment and both Edward and Winry looked up suddenly, seeing the littlest of old ladies running towards her, flapping her hands in the air to garner their attention. Her dress was a modest brown, her apron was smudged with dirt and flapping in the wind, the bun thrown hastily in her hair slipping from her head. All in all she looked like a hot mess, and the way Winry quickly released his hand to go running towards her gave him a feeling that he was about to get roped into doing something he didn't sign up for.

With a sigh, Edward hunched his shoulders and threw his hands in his pockets as he quickened his walking to catch up to the two women. They chatted animatedly together as he caught the tail end of Winry loudly proclaiming to help the older woman.

"Of course we'll help you!" She affirmed happily, grabbing Edward by the crook of his arm and pulling him into her side. "Edward and I should be able to round them all up in no time at all!"

"Eh?" Edward ticked, raising an eyebrow in question to the welling eyes of the older woman.

"Oh thank you so much!" She proclaimed, happily clasping her hands together in glee.

"Help with what?" Edward asked.

"My bones are just getting so old these days, and with my boys gone and good for nothing son-in-law, simple jobs like these have gotten so hard for me," She continued to tell Winry, both women pointedly ignoring the questioning man.

"What are we helping with?" Edward again asked.

"There's no reason for you to even be trying to run around a field by yourself! Don't even worry about it, Edward and I are fully capable!" Winry told the woman; Edward again being completely ignored.

"Great!" The woman smiled, pointing off behind her to a broken fence and—if Edward's skills at deduction were anything—the distinct flattened grass of escaped animals.

"Really?!" Edward asked hotly, stifling a curse as a sharp elbow jabbed into his side and Winry wrenching him further towards her.

The old woman looked at him with wide concern, the beginning a hurt creeping into her eyes. Winry stepped up quickly, dragging Edward behind her and smiling at the old woman reassuringly, damage control mode on in her blonde head.

"Don't mind him! His mother dropped him on the head as a child! We thought it would affect his height only, but apparently his short comings seeped into his brain instead," she waved off as she passed the graying woman, dragging a protesting Edward behind her.

"What?! Who are you calling short?! Short comings?! You think I've got a small brain like a shrimp huh?! Ridiculous! I'm a full grown man now! I'm taller than you!" He protested loudly, allowing the blonde to drag him away from the happily waving grandma. Abruptly Winry dropped his arm and swung around, smacking him on the side of the head with her bag. Edward stumbled back, stuttering and trying to catch his footing before he toppled into what looked suspiciously of mud…or poop, and he wasn't willing to find out.

"What was that for?!" He demanded, taking a step into her personal space and glaring down at her.

Unfazed, Winry glared at the man, pointing at the opposite field and now free roaming animals.

"Have some manners, Edward! That little old lady couldn't round all those cows up by herself!"

Edward darted his eyes across the _field_ of cows and pointed angrily to the nasty beasts. "And you want _me_ to?!" He spat, their postures mimicking one another. To a by standard it might appear as if they were about to clasp hands and begin dancing across the field, but to those who knew them it was a standoff, and one that Edward would never win.

The blue of Winry's eyes became dangerous slits.

"Let's get to it," she demanded angrily, shoving his arm out of the way and walking towards the animals.

"UGH!" Edward stomped childishly, following the woman a few paces ahead of him. He quickly caught up to her and pushed past her, "let me show you how to do it, I don't need you getting hurt by an angry stampede." He grumbled as he walked by, missing the bright smile that was shot at his back.

**OoOoOo**

Edward was not amused.

And the cackling woman-child behind him was not helping his heating blood.

The object of her amusement? Oh, it could be a number of things really. Like maybe how said cows were proving to be denser than he had originally anticipated and how every attempt to even get them to budge had ended in failure?

Or maybe how in his latest attempt to move the beast, and with the force of one Edward Elric against the backside, it had resulted in only a singular step from the cow, off balancing the frustrated man and causing him to slip straight into what he now _knew_ and could _confirm_ was cow shit.

Yeah, that was probably what she was chortling at.

He glared at her from over his shoulder, watching as tears streamed down her face and her arms grasped at her stomach. She waved her hands in his direction and chocked out between laughing gasps, "Don't….look at…me!" before bursting further into her amusement.

Edward stomped near her, causing an immediate retreat from her as she held her hands away, her laughing subsiding but the gasping persisting. "Please, stay away from me you stink so bad!" Edward stopped and glared at the woman.

"Do you have a better idea?!" He demanded finally, every one of his attempts to move the animal resulting in horrible failure.

Winry slowly subsided her remaining laughter, wiping at her eyes and breathing deeply with a wide smile. "I don't know, why don't you just try to talk to them nicely?" She said after a moment.

Edward rolled his eyes at her, throwing his arms out and ignoring her shriek as she dodged a stinky projectile.

"Wow Winry, yeah let me just go sweet talk the stupid thing!" He sarcastically retorted, walking back towards the animal and getting in its face, "Oh here little piece of shit, come with me!"

Winry laughed again at the picture Edward was making and shook her head, "Edward you have to be nice to them or they won't listen to you!" She shouted across the distance.

The cow chewed once in obvious stupidity. Grinding his teeth Edward made a wide sweeping gesture, "Be a nice little cow and come with Edward back home so you can eat!" he told the cow. _'...and hopefully be eaten!_' He spitefully thought.

Best to keep that to himself.

Amazingly enough, the creature did as it was told, resulting in another fit of laughter from the woman further beyond him and a dead panned Edward Elric.

"You've got to be kidding me," he mumbled to himself, watching as the cow continued to follow him until it was safely back in the pin.

And so with every beast he sweet talked them, feeling ever a bigger fool with each one, looking up occasionally to see Winry gently coaxing the small calf's with her. His eyes narrowed once as he watched her quickly pocket something when she was caught, too innocent of a smile being shinned in his direction.

The sun was dipping past midafternoon once all animals had been wrangled back into the pin and Edward took a deep sigh, leaning against the now repaired fence, his head and shoulders thrown back in exhaustion. Who knew sweet talking so many cows could make a man so tired?

He heard the soft footfalls of Winry coming to rest beside him, though distinctly out of arms reach. He looked over at her smiling face with a raised eyebrow. "What did you have in your pocket earlier?" He asked as he watched some cow's congregate behind her, nudging her back. She laughed lightly and reached into her pocket, producing a rock looking thing and showing him once before giving it to the animal behind her who early wrapped its elongated tongue around it.

"It's a sugar cube and they love them!" She told him with a laugh, watching as realization dawned on his face.

"What?" Edward asked carefully, feeling a headache form at the base of his skull. Winry threw him a mischievous smile and nodded towards his pants.

"I slipped one into your pocket earlier, so that probably explains why they followed you in here." She told him breezily, unsympathetic in the least. Edward quickly shoved his hand into his pocket, feeling his eyebrow tick as his fingers were met with a cool object.

"You have got to be kidding me," he mused, bringing the thing out and throwing it to the eager cows behind him.

Winry shrugged and laughed at the expression on his face. "Really Edward if you were nicer this would have been over a lot quicker. You should think next time. The farmer gave me these when she first approached me, said it would be a really easy job, but she was just getting too old for it." Winry scolded him, reaching into the pin and gently patting the cows head, giggling as he licked her fingers of the residual sweetness.

"Winry, you are going to kill me one day." Edward muttered darkly. Before he could say anything more, the elderly woman appeared suddenly beside him with a smile and small package in her arms. She looked happily at the both of them before shifting startled eyes towards Edward and taking a pointed step away from him.

Edward only chose to not say anything out of the kindness of his heart

"Thank you two so much for all your help," she told them both, pressing the package toward Winry who accepted with a gracious smile and a happy nod.

"It was no big deal." She told the woman, ignoring the mumbled 'says who' by a certain man.

"If the two of you ever need anything, please let me know!" She told them both.

Winry nodded with a happy thanks and Edward with a stiff grunt.

"Be safe!" Winry told her as she and Edward began to collect their discarded things.

"Can we go now?" Edward grumbled unhappily as the old lady started suturing off, a happy pop to her step. Shit, he'd be happy too if some strangers came over to his house and cleaned it up for him.

Winry rolled her eyes and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Yes Edward, we can leave!" She laughed at his impatience, feeling satisfied with her day.

**OoOoOo**

By the time the small house they shared came into view, the sun was just beginning to dip along the earth's curve, casting warm gold's across the land.

"It's so beautiful out tonight." Winry commented as they walked to the side of the house, Edward eager to get out of his soiled clothes.

"Yeah it's great," He mumbled uncaringly, pulling his shirt up and off his head, ignoring the small 'eep' Winry gave from behind him.

With a grand and dramatic sigh, Edward walked into the front yard and plopped heavily into the green field. A moment later, he heard the grass beside his rustle as Winry seated herself next to him, the soft breeze and cooling sun catching both of their attention.

"I had fun today," Winry finally commented, breaking the small silence that had elapsed.

Edward looked over to Winry, smiling at the gaze in her expression as she took in the rolling landscape.

"Pff," he scoffed. "It could do without some aspects."

Winry turned and smiled at him, a small giggle slipping from her lips. And at that moment Edward decided that he could do with all the aspects. With her life lessons, with the cow patties he'd slipped in, with the creaky old woman, everything, if it all led to that smile she shone at him.

The one that was only for him.

"Oh yeah! She gave us something!" Winry suddenly remembered, pulling the gift from beside her and opening the top to peak in.

She promptly shut it with another bellowing laugh, handing him the package and jumping up from the grass to run inside.

Edward watched her confusedly, peaking into the bag and feeling a tick start again in his temple, the jar and its label mocking while simultaneously gagging him.

_'Fresh Milk'_

He could _definitely_ do without certain aspects of today.

**OoOoOo**

_Yay! Special thanks to my beta __**ZilSepam **__for all her wonderful help! Another chapter will be out soon! Love those reviews! _


	20. 20 Grooming Jitters

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characcters I just force them to do my evil bidding! **

**Life in Moments**

**Chapter Twenty: Grooming Jitters **

**Beta: ZilSepam**

**OoOoOo**

Edward gulped nervously, as he pulled at the restricting collar.

Alphonse slapped his hand away dramatically, scowling with an eye roll. "Brother, calm down." He told the elder Elric.

"It keeps getting _tighter_!" Edward complied loudly, tucking his fingers quickly in the collar and pulling again.

Again his hands were slapped away.

"It's not, Brother!" Alphonse reprimanded, stepping forward and re-adjusting the quickly wrinkling material. "Leave it alone, if you keep messing with your tie Winry is going to be mad at you."

At the mention of the blond beauty Edward gulped again, feeling a light sweat creep along his spine. Alphonse stared at the older man, concern etching his face. "Brother, why are you so nervous? It's just Winry." He attempted to sooth.

Edward darted nervous eyes to Al. "_Only_ Winry?!" He looked quickly at the door as if merely mentioning said woman's name she would come bursting through it, wrench in hand and anger blazing in her eyes. "Why do you think I'm so nervous?!"

Al stared at Edward for a moment with contemplation, before a slow smile spread across his face.

"Why are you so nervous?" He asked as he re-tightened the tie softly and smoothed the front down.

"I'm not," Edward lied hotly, his face slowly morphing to a light red.

Al shook his head, taking a small step back and taking his brother in, laughing lightly at the way he was still so defensive. One would think after everything he'd been through that his temper would be a little less short fused, but if anything, these last few months had only proven that it had become worse. His posture was one of a tightly coiled man, his fingers twitching and wrenching anything they could get their hands on, his back stiff and his jaw set firmly. It was as if he was about to march to his death!

"You know, Brother, you shouldn't be so worried. If Winry stuck with you these last few months, than I think you're fine."

Edward's body jerked unnaturally, and a chocked laugh fell from his lips. "I'm not worried!" He yelled.

"Are you trying to convince me?" Al asked while crossing his arms, unable to hide his amusement from the fidgeting man.

"Is this funny to you?" Edward seethed angrily, his brow bunching and shoulders hunching.

"It really is, Brother. You have got to relax! If Winry walks down that isle seeing you like this, she's going to be pissed!" Al laughed, watching how his brother paled again at the mention of his impending nuptials.

The air suddenly thickened, and Edward pivoted on his heal, facing the large window overlooking the garden and arrangement of flowers and chairs below. His shoulders and back tense, and Alphonse dampened his laugh, worry etching his face. "Ed, what's really going on? You shouldn't be so scared." He tried to sooth, tilting slightly to peak at his brother's face.

His expression had morphed to a pensive level, the lines along his face harsh against the happy backdrop of the guests.

"I feel like I'm going to fuck it up," he admitted after a tense silence.

"You're not going to mess it up, Brother," Al quickly interjected.

"Not the wedding," Ed mumbled, his brow furrowing further and lips thinning. "The marriage."

The weight of his words caused Alphonse to pause as he thought of what his brother was really saying. Edward sighed heavily, his shoulders dropping and his head hanging. "I don't know why she's even waited this long for me. I would never blame her for being with someone else, but I selfishly couldn't let her go. Hell, I didn't even propose to her properly and she still wanted me. If I can't do any of those things right what makes me think I can do this marriage shit right?" He mulled quietly.

Al shook his head at his brother's back but still Edward continued. "I don't even know what's supposed to happen next. Father was never even around to show us, and I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'm going to end up being just like that ass hole."

"Edward…" Al protested softly.

"Dammit!" Edward yelled, slamming his fist against the window seal.

The silence was tense and not the silence that a man should be having moments before committing his life to his woman.

"Do you love her?" Alphonse asked suddenly, his tone accusing and unwavering.

Edward spun around, an angry fire in his eyes, "Of course I do! Bu—"

"Then everything will be fine," Al interrupted, unwilling to let Edward fall and dwell in things yet to come. "Will your marriage have ups and downs? Sure, if it's one worth even having then there are going to be times when the two of you have to fight for it, but the two of you already have something in your favor, and that's your love and loyalty to each other. Don't belittle Winry's feelings, Brother. They're strong and you have to work hard for the things that are important to you."

Edward stared through his brother in silence, feeling no retort come to his lips.

"When you get upset like this, you should practice thinking of all the things you love about her." Al said softy, stepping forward and clapping him on the shoulder. "Now, I'm going to give you a moment to collect yourself and go check on Mei and the caterers."

Edward nodded softly and Al slapped him again on the shoulder with a smile. "Cheer up Ed, it's your wedding!" He told the man as he made his way out of the room, closing the door softly with a click behind him to give the man a moment.

Pre-wedding jitters were something every groom went through, and Edward was proving to be no different. "Stupid man," Al mumbled under his breath with a smile. This relationship was not one that Edward could destroy, and he had Winry to thank for that.

**OoOoOo**

The door clicked softly, sealing Edward in the now suddenly quiet room with just his thoughts.

He turned on his heal again, looking down below at the people ambling about happily and smiling, unaware of the brooding man a story above them.

He looked around the quiet room, the single bed in the middle with minimal furniture and felt a small smile finally beginning to bloom on his face. This is where he proposed to Winry. He paused, well, technically he could argue that he proposed to her on the train station that day so many years ago, but it was here in this room with just the two of them that he popped the question to her.

He shook his head. No, he didn't 'pop' any 'question' to her. He demanded she marry him, and of course she agreed.

Not like he'd let her refuse him anyways. He smiled, thinking about the serenity of Winry and the way she eased his troubled soul.

He remembered telling her to marry him like it was yesterday, and it was a memory that would always be engraved in his soul.

The sun was just barely peeking through the windows, the gauzed curtains blowing in the breeze from the opened window. Edward would never have been awake in his right mind that early in the morning, but was roused by a gentle caress along his forehead. He opened his eyes slowly and his breath whooshed out in one quick burst.

She was a goddess of the wind, come to take him to the place only celestial beings could dwell. The sun cast a beautiful glow around her face, causing her hair to glow in golden strands of liquid honey and soft tresses to caress her bare arms and gently tickle the skin buzzing to life along his own. She was leaning towards him on one elbow, her eyes glowing with a love that took the beat from his heart and that beautiful mane tumbling forward. He couldn't go one second longer in his life right then without touching it and ever so gently he reached forward, feeling the silky strands slip through his fingers and soft flesh warming his palm.

She leaned further into his hand, her cheek pressing against his callouses and her eyes trapping him in their endless pools of liquid azure.

"Marry me," he mumbled into the silence of the morning, his statement met not with words but a slow and glorious smile as she leaned forward and sealed the deal with a kiss that stole the breath from his lungs.

Edward smiled at the processions happening below.

His brother was right, but not in the sense that he probably thought he was right. Edward would be okay, and maybe sometimes not so okay at this whole marriage thing, but to see the love in Winry's eyes every morning for no one but him…well he'd move mountains for that if she asked him.

A light tapping drew Edward's attention away from the window and he turned as it was opening to see his brother waving at someone down the hall before he came in, stopping as he saw the look on Edward's face.

A smile broke on Al's face. "Now that's the look were supposed to see today!" He exclaimed with a happy slap on the grooms shoulder.

Edward rolled his eyes with a smile before taking the younger man under his arm and twisting, bringing his head into a lock and twisting his fist across the top of his head.

"Brother! Stop! Mei will kill you!" Al shouted, struggling to get out from under his arm.

"You better remember who your older brother is, punk! I'm not a short cake you can just talk down to! You wanna see what this shrimp can do to his younger brother?" Edward jested with a harder rasp of his knuckles along Al's scalp.

"Brother~!" Al wailed desperately, wrenching his head futilely and twisting his shoulders every which way, "Uncle! Uncle! I give up!" Al surrendered, staggering back suddenly as Edward released him with a jovial laugh. Al glared at the laughing man, pressing his hands along his hair and trying to style it the way it was.

Ed slapped his brother between the shoulder blades before wrapping his arms around Al's shoulders.

"What do you say we go get this wedding under way?" Edward asked as he began steering him towards the door.

Al smiled and clasped his arm around his brother's shoulder. "Yes, lets!"

**OoOoOo**

And when Winry walked down the aisle, love glowing in her eyes, Edward was suddenly no longer nervous of whatever the future might bring. He knew then, no matter what they went through, he would always know her love, and he'd fight for that.

**OoOoOo**

**Special thanks to my beta ZilSepam, couldn't have such a flawless reading experience without her! I love all my reviews from the last chapter, Im glad yall like the fluff ;) **


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